'Father and son' finally allowed to marry after 50 years in love
Two men in their 70s have gone from being ‘father and son’ to being able to legally marry.
The Daily Mail reports Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur (78 and 76) had been together romantically for more than 50 years.
They registered as domestic partners in New York in 1994 but after moving to Bucks County the pair realised Pennsylvania law did not recognize their partnership and prohibited same-sex marriage.
Their lawyer advised them that the only way to become legally related and give them the rights they wanted, was through adoption.
In 2000, the pair became father and son when Novak adopted MacArthur.
'We were told when we started to look into this that hell would freeze over before Pennsylvania allowed same-sex marriage,' said MacArthur told The Daily Mail.
'So doing the adoption was literally the only thing we could do to give legal underpinning to our relationship.'
WorldNetDaily reported that even though the adoption was legal, the pair dreamed of being married to each other.
It took fifteen years for the United States District Court to declare Pennsylvania’s Marriage Laws prohibiting same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional.
Now well into their 70s, the pair can get married.
However, they were still considered father and son in the eyes of the law, so the next step was to have the adoption vacated.
On May 14, 2015, Judge Gary B. Gilman of Bucks County Orphans’ Court vacated the adoption decree.
This allowed the pair, who were once father and son, to finally marry – something they wanted all along.
“We are ecstatic beyond belief. I feel an enormous sense of not only relief but freedom that we can finally do something in Pennsylvania that I’ve been dreaming of for years”, MacArthur said.
The day after it was approved, the couple applied for a marriage license – it took only 15 minutes to approve.
Novak and MacArthur were yet to set an exact date for them to marry but said it would be soon.
News break - May 28
