Michael McConnell and Jack Baker

Weeks before the 1969 Stonewall riots,[6][7][8] two activists recruited local friends to join a team called "Fight Repression of Erotic Expression" as part of an outreach program sponsored by Minnesota Free University.[9]

Robert Halfhill, a graduate student who attended their lecture, left determined to form an independent group called "FREE"[10] on the Minneapolis campus (U of M) of the University of Minnesota. Attendees elected Jack Baker, a law student,[11] to serve as president.[12]

Interest in FREE expanded quickly. When a faculty committee qualified the group for all privileges enjoyed by student organizations,[13] it became "the first student gay organization to gain recognition in the upper mid-west."[14] Its "leaders [believed] it to be the first such organization on a Big Ten campus", the second such organization in the United States, following the Student Homophile League[15] recognized by Columbia University in 1967.[16]

Moving openly and aggressively, FREE slowly transformed Minneapolis into a "mecca for gays",[17] with members soon endorsing McConnell's demand for same-sex marriage.[18]

One member asked five major companies with local offices to explain their attitudes toward gay men and women. Three responded quickly,[19] insisting that they did not discriminate against homosexuals in their hiring policies. Only Honeywell objected.[20] Later, when faced with a denial of access to students, Honeywell "quietly [reversed] its hiring policy".[21]

In 1971, Baker campaigned[22] to become president of the Minnesota Student Association at the U of M. He urged students "to search out a new self-respect",[23] insisting that there was no need to wait for a new law to have a student serve with the regents. "The Regents already have the power to appoint students to all committees of the Board or Regents."

With a focus on self-pride, Baker was elected[24] then re-elected.[25] As student body president,[26] he continued to question why the Board of Regents ignored students when making its decisions.

Eventually, one non-voting student was invited to sit with the regents at each committee meeting. After graduation, the Governor signed into law a bill reserving one seat on the Board of Regents for an enrolled student.

Also in 1971, members of FREE from Gay House invited friends to meet at picnics in Loring Park, near Downtown Minneapolis. Such self-pride events began in mid-June as a prelude to local 4th of July celebrations.[27] Jack Baker obtained permissions while Thom Higgins crafted Gay Pride[8] for both the banner and chant used to encourage allies, supporters and bystanders to defeat all attempts by the Catholic archbishop for Minneapolis and Saint Paul[28] to demean as a 'sin' either gay or pride.

Photo by Jim Chalgren, June 1973. Courtesy: Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, U of M Libraries, Minneapolis.

"At the time, Jack was the Chair of the Target City Coalition, parent corporation for The Gay Pride Committee, which sponsored the annual Festival of Pride each June."[29] Such celebrations became the PRIDE tradition that thrives today in cities throughout the United States.

Egil Jonsson later shared his pride with friends. "I am in the [middle], 16 years old. This was the first gay rights march in the country that had a headline banner 'Gay Pride'. The following year all the marches adopted this and everyone called it Gay Pride. The banner was made by a friend, Thom Higgins, famous for throwing a cream pie into the face of Anita Bryant, anti-gay activist [in] 1978 on national television during a press conference. Thom and I dated, become [sic] friends in 1980."[30]

FREE continued working with U of M faculty to protect gay students from discrimination.[31] Central Administration approved the final draft of a new policy in 1972 and the Campus Committee on Placement Services began accepting complaints of unequal treatment by employers recruiting on campus. A member of FREE received class credit for a documentary about America’s first gay marriage,[32] which was aired by the local CBS affiliate on a Sunday in September 1973.[33]

In 1970, Minnesota's statutes did not forbid marriage between two adult men.[4] McConnell and Baker applied for a marriage license in Minneapolis, arguing that "what is not forbidden is permitted".[34]

The Clerk of District Court,[35] Gerald Nelson, denied their request. Refusal by lower courts to order Nelson to issue a license[36] was later affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court in Baker v. Nelson (1971).[37] However, before that decision became final, McConnell applied again, in a different county,[38] and received a marriage license.

The case received extensive media attention,[39] including appearances on the Phil Donahue Show;[40] Kennedy & Co. (WLS-TV, Chicago IL); and David Susskind Show[41] (New York, NY), where Baker insisted, "We're gonna win eventually, not this time but maybe the next time around."

The reaction from gay and civil liberty advocates was indifferent at best. Gay marriage was "rejected by early gay activists [in New York City] who were mostly interested in sexual freedom and gay liberation"[42] while leadership inside the American Civil Liberties Union showed "little or no enthusiasm".[43]

Allan Spear – professor of history at U of M – mocked McConnell and Baker as the "lunatic fringe".[44]

When invited to address members of the Ramsey County Bar Association,[45] Baker insisted that same-sex unions are "not only authorized by the U.S. Constitution" but are mandatory. "I am convinced that same-sex marriages will be legalized in the United States."

After Baker spoke to a forum of more than 2,000 at the University of Winnipeg,[46] Richard North began his "fight to be married" to Chris Vogel. The government of Canada legalized same-sex marriage in 2004.

NAACP's president, Benjamin Todd Jealous, insisted that as demands for same-sex marriage continued to grow worldwide, it became "the civil rights issue of our times".[8]

Speaking to the Associated Press, Baker explained that the "outcome was never in doubt because the conclusion was intuitively obvious to a first-year law student."[47]

McConnell’s marriage to Baker – like any marriage – depended on the interpretation of Minnesota’s marriage law.[4] Early results were not favorable,[48] with state and federal courts rejecting the marriage.

Denial of the original request in Minneapolis resulted in a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court[49] by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.

A quick dismissal[50] was approved unanimously[51] after the clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun crafted a one-sentence rejection, "I just [didn't] think the court was ready at the time to take on the issue."[52]

Lower courts were forced to supervise a national debate before the high court decided that its decision to dismiss all demands for same-sex marriage must be overruled.[53]

Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service rejected their joint tax return for 1973.[54] McConnell responded by listing Baker as an adopted "child" on his tax returns from 1974 through 2004 for which he claimed a deduction as head of household. That benefit ended when Congress limited the deduction for an adopted child under the age of 19.[55]

Also, the Veterans Administration rejected a claim for benefits in 1976[56] because "Minnesota law prohibits same sex marriages . . ."

In 1971, McConnell adopted[57] Baker whose legal name changed to Pat Lyn McConnell. Now with a gender-neutral name, McConnell applied and received a marriage license in Blue Earth County while the couple was visiting friends in Mankato.[38] Rev. Roger Lynn, a United Methodist minister, validated the marriage contract.[58][14]

Afterward, the Hennepin County Attorney convened a grand jury, which "studied the legality of the marriage but found the question not worth pursuing."[59]

The Family Law Reporter argued that the Minnesota high court's 1972 opinion[5] on the couple’s first attempt at marriage in Minneapolis – Baker v. Nelson – did not invalidate McConnell and Baker's Blue Earth County marriage license because the two were married "a full six weeks" before that decision was filed.[60]

Indeed, records at The National Archives[61] verify that "McConnell and Baker's marriage license [from Blue Earth County, MN] was never revoked. They are still married and have been for the last forty two years."

Legal professionals, academics and historians agree:

• Professor Thomas Kraemer insisted that FREE hosted "the first same-sex couple in history to be legally married".[62]

• Assistant Chief Judge Gregory Anderson ordered, "The marriage is declared to be in all respects valid."[3]

• Their wedding[58] was proclaimed to be America’s first gay marriage.[32]

• Historians vetted the marriage and affirmed it to be the "earliest same-gender marriage ever to be recorded in the public files of any civil government",[63] indeed anywhere.