Let's meet Louisiana's first gay couple

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Rip Naquin and Martin Greeson arrived at New Orleans City Hall before dawn Sept. 3, 1993, the first day to sign up for the city's newly created register of "domestic partners."

The registry was open to unwed couples willing to pay a $35 fee and provide a sworn statement testifying to their "intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring" and shared living expenses. The registry was open to heterosexual couples, but the line that formed behind Naquin and Greeson, who goes by the name Marsha Delain, were all same-sex pairs.

After a two-hour wait for someone to open the doors to City Hall, Naquin and Delain completed their paperwork and became the first legally recognized same-sex couple in Louisiana.

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