Gerard "Jerry" Racioppi and Randall "Randy" Johnson are long time members of the Diocese of Newark; Randy is a member of the Episcopal House staff.
[West Orange Chronicle] West Orange residents Gerard Racioppi and Randall Johnson always knew they would eventually be able to legally marry in New Jersey, but never assumed it would happen so soon. Racioppi and Johnson were the first same-sex couple to be married in West Orange Township on Oct. 21, days after same-sex marriage was legalized in the state, following Gov. Chris Christie’s withdrawal of an appeal looking to ban the institution.
In a phone interview last week with Johnson and Racioppi, both men were “surprised” the process of getting legally married was so quick.
“I didn’t know whether or not we would be able to do it with Christie being so against it, but it was a miracle that it has happened,” Johnson said. “We didn’t expect it — others have fought for this for years and years — and for us to be able to do it is amazing. We thought it would have taken a lot longer than it did.”
Racioppi and Johnson were married in Town Hall by Mayor Robert Parisi at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 after Racioppi went to a superior court judge in Newark that morning to obtain a waiver to allow the two to be married as soon as possible. Ordinarily, there is a 72-hour waiting period between applying for a marriage license and having a wedding.
“It was all very sudden,” Racioppi said. “Everything happened so quickly after I got the waiver. We spoke to the mayor’s assistant on Monday morning and immediately had the ceremony that day.
“The mayor made himself available and next thing we knew, we were in the council chambers about to get married,” Racioppi said.
Johnson and Racioppi said the ceremony was much more “emotional and powerful” than they had thought it would be.
“We got pretty choked up as the mayor was reading the words to us and we thought, wow, this is really cool that we can do this now,” Racioppi said.
Both Johnson and Racioppi are lifelong residents of New Jersey; they have been West Orange residents for the past 11 years.
“It was so special to have done it in our hometown and on the first day it was legalized,” Johnson said. “We’ve lived in New Jersey all our lives and wanted to get married in our state and that is why we did it on day one.”
Racioppi and Johnson both said that they couldn’t have been more “thrilled” to be married in West Orange.
“We have always had such a huge connection to the town and wonderful neighbors, that we are just very happy to have been married here on the first day,” Racioppi said.
“As soon as we found out through the West Orange Facebook page that the health department would be open to give out marriage licenses, we asked our wonderful next-door neighbor if she would be our witness and her response was, ‘I’ll be ready in 15 minutes.’ It was just so special and she gave us a great amount of support.”
Johnson added that everyone at Town Hall on the day of their wedding was “very warm” and congratulated them after the ceremony was finished.
“It was very sweet,” Johnson said.
Racioppi and Johnson have been together since 2002 and, although they were legally married on Oct. 21, they had exchanged vows in a traditional church wedding years before.
“The state was offering domestic partnerships in July of 2004 and, in the midst of getting that, we were also planning a wedding at our church in Morristown,” Racioppi said. “We had a church wedding in October 2004 and that was when we were committed and married … the best day of our lives.”
