'Amazing' U.S. same-sex marriage ruling makes Windsorite 'want to cry'
U.S. Supreme Court ruling was one Ginny Lundgren 'never ever' thought would happen
The landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that will allow same-sex couples to marry in every state was one that Ginny Lundgren never thought she would see.
Lundgren is originally from Michigan but lives in Windsor today. She's been married to her partner Paulette Kupnicki for years and the couple have been together for 33 years.
But she never thought things would change in her home state on the other side of the Detroit River.
"It makes you want to cry," she told CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive on Friday, when describing her reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling.
The ruling could have a very practical effect on Lundgren's life, even though she married in Windsor years ago.
"I just thought how wonderful it will be now for my partner to be able to get my benefits," said Lundgren.
"Otherwise, they were lost. You know, they would go out into thin air, that would be the end of it and now she's eligible to apply for them. That's amazing."
Lundgren said that her partner has so far been ineligible to receive spousal benefits that they attempted to apply for because Michigan did not recognize their relationship.
With Friday's ruling, Lundgren said things now appear to be different.
"We just waited and when we heard that this morning, I said: 'I think Monday morning, we need to go over to the social security office,'" she said.
'I'm just so happy'
The same ruling from the top U.S. court was also welcomed by Joe McParland, a Windsor-based marriage officiant who believed it would happen one day.
He had long been telling the couples he married that he wished they could get married at home, as people in Canada have been able to do since 2005. McParland always told them he hoped that would happen soon.
"I've probably married two to three hundred couples from the United States, they come from 26 different states, over the last 10 years and I have maintained pretty decent friendships with most of them," he said Friday on Afternoon Drive. "And [I've] been hearing on Facebook today from a lot of them and a lot of them remembered my prediction that it would happen for them eventually, as it did for us in Canada."
Overall, McParland said he was "elated" by the news from the U.S. on Friday, even though it means he won't be marrying as many American couples any more.
"I'm just so happy, so very happy for them."
With a report from The Associated Press