Auburn Correctional Facility wedding first for prison system
  • AUBURN — Marriage equality in New York passed another landmark Monday, as an Auburn Correctional Facility inmate married his boyfriend in the state’s first same-sex marriage ceremony behind bars.

    The inmate, 31-year-old Ronald Cook, married 34-year-old Marc Rodriguez, a former Auburn inmate, in a simple civil ceremony Monday morning.

    The two men met in the prison in 2002, Rodriguez said.

    The romance developed slowly — Rodriguez, known in prison as “Sunshine,” has been openly gay since he was 12 years old, but Cook had never been in a same-sex relationship before.

    “Sometimes it’s hard to maintain because you’ve got to keep it hidden,” Rodriguez said. “The officers have comments, but that goes with the territory of being gay.”

    When Rodriguez was released in 2004 after a four-year sentence for robbery, he tore up his bus ticket to the Bronx, where he’s from, and instead moved to Syracuse to be nearer to Cook.

    The two men had discussed getting married before marriage equality became the law this spring, Rodriguez said. They almost had to call it off after Rodriguez got in a car accident Sunday, but he showed up on time Monday with a nasty set of stitches on his nose and forehead.

    They exchanged rings Monday -- diamonds for Rodriguez and a plain wedding band for Cook, on account of prison regulations.

    Rodriguez bought Cook a pair of boots for a wedding present, but prison officials would not let him keep them, Rodriguez said.

    The justice of the peace was Ray Lockwood. The former chairman of the Cayuga County Legislature has officiated many weddings behind bars, but never between two men.


I'm sure there were gay marriages in prison many times before this, but they just weren't officially recognized. If you know what I mean.