Lead plaintiffs in Wisconsin case hope fight for marriage is won soon

When a three-judge appellate panel in Chicago on Thursday declared Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, Virginia Wolf and Carol Schumacher were overjoyed.

But the two women, who married in Minnesota in December, know the battle for same-sex marriage isn't over yet.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the high court does not take up the case, same-sex marriages can resume in Wisconsin in a few weeks, unless the state obtains a stay from the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

"It feels to me like we're on a downward slope towards marriage, so that feels real good," Schumacher said. "But it would be really nice if it would just get settled and people could get married because some of the plaintiffs and our friends have young children they have to worry about, and some people have health issues."

So as much as the two women wanted to celebrate, they couldn't help but think how far they've come — and how far they have to go.

Wolf, 75, and Schumacher, 60, have been a couple since 1975. Two years later, they moved from their native Kansas to Wisconsin.

For years, the women have long been active in the gay and lesbian community in Eau Claire, holding meetings in their living room and creating a support hotline.

On Friday, Schumacher proudly held up a snapshot from one of their first gay pride events in the 1980s. "Oh golly, look how young we were," she said.

Behind them, anti-gay protesters held signs that read: "Homosexuals: repent or perish."

Wolf said society has changed a great deal since she was a student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1959 and school officials became aware of her first lesbian relationship.

"We were found out and we were sent to the dean of women and we were required to be in counseling and were not allowed to see each other on threat of expulsion," she recalled. "So that's the way it was in 1959. This is very different. So much has happened you know, and thank God for those activists at Stonewall in '69...and all the other ones since."

The decades in which gays and lesbians — average, ordinary people — have decided to openly express their true selves, have "made all the difference in the world from that time," Wolf said.

Wolf and Schumacher are now one of eight couples challenging Wisconsin's 2006 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. It's just the latest in what Wolf calls their "odyssey."

"I think a big part of our lives together has been to try to show people that we deserve respect and fair treatment," she said.

In 1990, they had a commitment ceremony at their Unitarian Church in Eau Claire. Wolf's son and daughter served as attendants. In 2004, they applied for a marriage license, knowing they would be denied. Since then, they've watched neighboring states legalize same sex marriage — Iowa in 2009, then Minnesota and Illinois in 2013. That's provoked a roller coaster of emotions for them: joy, sadness, frustration and even jealousy.

"We can go to Minnesota and get married and that's an easy enough thing to do," Wolf said. "[But] you have to come home and you still have three-fourths of the rights that are accorded to married people denied you."

The women tied the knot in Minnesota last December at the Hennepin County government center. And as nice as the experience was, Wolf said, they haven't reached their goal.

"It's better to be 'married somewhat' than not to be married at all," she said. "I think that we have a lot of federal benefits that we didn't have."

The two women don't know if their case will head to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they are anxious to see the day their Minnesota marriage is legal in Wisconsin.

"I think we kind of see time really passing by pretty quick for us so we're hoping that we'll be able to be legally married while we're still both alive," Schumacher said. "We're not spring chickens anymore so it would be really nice to be married while we're still alive."