Minutes after Charleston County Councilwoman Colleen Condon and her fiancee Nichols Bleckley arrived in his office to fill out a marriage license form and pay their $70 fee, Charleston County Probate Judge Irvin Condon said Wednesday he would grant their marriage license. This decision comes just two days after the Supreme Court let a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision overturning Virginia's gay marriage ban stand. The Fourth Circuit includes South Carolina, so that legal precedent became law there. Condon and Bleckley's application was the first of many this morning.
This morning as the two were leaving Probate Judge Condon's office, GLAAD got an exclusive interview with Councilwoman Condon.
Q: How long have the two of you known each other and when did you want to get married?
A: We have been dating for about a year and a half and we got engaged on Valentine's Day this year.
Q: Did you ever think this would happen?
A: Well, we're pretty optimistic folks so we were hoping it would and in fact, when I asked her to marry me, her answer was "Only if it's legal here." She was committed that we were only getting married in South Carolina when it was legal here because we're both from South Carolina.
Q: What does it mean to you to be from South Carolina and to finally be able to get married?
A: Well, it means everything. It truly is important to be able to have full rights. We want to spend the rest of our lives together and marriage is certainly the way to go for us, and we're certainly not like some couples who have been waiting for forever, and they're going to have that opportunity as well. We're pretty traditional. We want a big Southern wedding, and now that, hopefully the marriage license will be granted tomorrow, and in that case, we'll start looking for a location, DJs, the caterer, flowers, and all that good stuff. We're excited to start planning the wedding!
Q: How are your friends and family reacting?
A: We have had love and support. We're really blessed to have so many friends and family members who are one-hundred percent behind us. I know everybody in my family thinks Nichols is the best thing that's ever happened to me.
Q: How do you feel about tomorrow?
A: We are still kind of holding our breath, and then we want to set the wedding date. We want a more traditional wedding. We're gonna have lots of friends and family and the music and the wedding cake and the whole sha-bang. We believe in having all of it.
Q: Why is it important for you to get married?
A: I mean, this is my soulmate. We're supposed to be together. And so that's what you do with the person that you love. You spend your lives together. And we've been planning our lives together, sharing a home, raising my child; we're involved in our neighborhood, and we split family household chores just like everybody else. We're looking forward to having that relationship recognized in a wedding that's legal in South Carolina.
Q: Paint a picture of how you're feeling right now.
A: Well, just like the day we got engaged and just like I'll be on the day of our wedding, we're excited, we've been smiling, we've been laughing, we've been crying. It's a great feeling.
Colleen and Nichols now have to wait twenty-four hours for their marriage license to take effect.