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Riverhead’s first gay weddings set for tomorrow

By Vera Chinese

Three gay weddings are scheduled for Riverhead Town Hall Thursday, the first day Town Clerk Diane Wilhelm will perform same-sex ceremonies.

A total of eight same-sex couples have filed for a marriage license since they became available in Riverhead Town on Monday — 24 hours after the state’s Marriage Equality Act went into effect in New York State.

The News-Review will be at Town Hall covering those historic ceremonies.

Click to read about one of the first same-sex couples to obtain a license in Riverhead

Applications were available statewide Sunday, July 24, though Riverhead Town Hall is closed on Sundays. Some municipalities opened Sunday to accept applications and were even able to wave the state-mandated 24-hour waiting period, including in neighboring Brookhaven Town.

Wedding ceremonies are usually only performed at Riverhead Town Hall on Thursdays for scheduling reasons, according to Ms. Wilhelm, so tomorrow will be the first day she performs a same-sex wedding.

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Vera Chinese has been the editor of northforker.com and northforker magazines since May 2014. Prior to that she spent two and a half years as a staff reporter for the New York Daily News. She joined the Riverhead News-Review as a staff writer in January 2010 and was named Associate Web Editor nine months later. She previously worked for the Southampton Press Western Edition and was named the third place 2008 Rookie Reporter of the Year by the New York Press Association. She graduated from Wagner College in 2006 where she received a bachelor's degree in English. She earned a master's degree in English education from New York University in 2007. She is a 2002 graduate of Eastport High School and has lived on the East End for more than 20 years.

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