A father and a son recently tied the knots after living together as a couple for more than 50 years.
78-year-old Bill Novak, and 76-year-old Norman MacArthur, vacated an adoption and instead became a married couple in Pennsylvania.
Novak adopted MacArthur some 15 years ago, after they originally went through an adoption process for estate planning when they were restricted from getting married in the state.
Therefore, in 2000, Novak sought to adopt his boyfriend as his son and somehow they got through with it and even got a reduction on their inheritance tax liability, the right to visit each other in the hospital if something were to happen, and several other legal rights that gay couples didn’t have.
MacArthur said, “We were told when we started to look into this that hell would freeze over before Pennsylvania allowed same-sex marriage.
“So doing the adoption was literally the only thing we could do to give legal underpinning to our relationship.”
MacArthur explained to the Associated Press that the adoption was the only decision that could give their relationship any legal grounding.
So naturally the couple was highly thrilled in 2014 as the Pennsylvania’s marriage laws, which forbade same-sex marriage, were declared unconstitutional.
When they learnt that a federal judge had lifted the ban on gay marriage, the duo wanted to get married as soon as possible, but were faced with the adoption which made them father and son legally.
After going through many legal hurdles, Judge Gary B. Gilman of Bucks County Orphans’ Court repealed the adoption that has lasted for 15 years and the couple’s petition to Vacate Adoption Decree was granted on Thursday, May 14, 2015 which makes it possible for them to be legally married.
MacArthur said, “We are ecstatic beyond belief. I feel an enormous sense of not only relief but freedom that we can finally do something in Pennsylvania that I’ve been dreaming of for years.”
