Talk:Jack Baker and Michael McConnell
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Name change? edit
Under the heading "Adoption, name change, and a lasting marriage", there's currently no mention of a name change. 93.124.249.179 (talk) 06:22, 11 May 2023 (UTC)
- I changed the heading to "Adoption and later legal review". Looking back at earlier versions of the article, it once said that McConnell legally adopted Baker in 1971 and Baker's legal name was changed to Pat Lyn McConnell. There seems to be quite a bit that used to be in the article and is not in it anymore, and some of the changes may not be an improvement. The article no longer directly says there was a formal adoption. — BarrelProof (talk) 23:44, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
First in the world or first in the United States? edit
After perceiving a lack of clarity in the opening and changing the opening sentence to say "first ... in the United States", I noticed the sentence saying "Their wedding became the earliest same-sex marriage ever to be recorded in the public files of any civil government." So perhaps this is a claim of being first in the world. Such a claim seems rather extraordinary when considering that there have been many cultures in the history of the world. If this is really intended to claim the status of first in the world (or first in recorded history), that should be made more clear in the opening sentence. It should also have strong sourcing. Both cited sources are offline book sources and thus can't be easily checked, and one of them was written by one of the people in this particular marriage, so it doesn't seem especially reliable. At the end of 2021, the article just said they were the first in the United States. — BarrelProof (talk) 23:44, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
Citation number 1 in the article looks like WP:Original research. It declares that "A historic celebration with no legal certificate, even if blessed in church, is perhaps a wedding but not a marriage." That seems rather dubious and does not seem to come directly from a cited source. It quotes definitions in a law dictionary to justify that conclusion, but the quotes from the law dictionary do not directly say that, and I think most people would disagree with that assertion. Marriage has been in existence a lot longer than legal certificates of marriage have been in existence. Even today in the United States, one can be legally married in a common-law marriage without having any legal certificate. — BarrelProof (talk) 00:13, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
I also found a citation to the script of a performance by middle schoolers! (See this edit.) — BarrelProof (talk) 02:02, 26 October 2023 (UTC)