Two Hearts Are Better Than One

Well, the most famous guys from Asbury Park these days are not in the E Street Band. Louis Navarrete and Ric Best were issued a marriage license by the Asbury Park city clerk, and were married yesterday. According to this news story, they've been together for fifteen years; and, despite the fact that people have differing opinions of same-sex marriage, actually being married was something which was very important to this couple:

Nearby, best man Ed Johnson, 41, said he was glad his best friends had waited to get married. When Johnson married his partner, Jeff Lundenberger, last summer in Canada, Best and Navarrete almost tagged along.

Johnson said his friends' union was sweet not just because it represented the first New Jersey same-sex marriage.

"Marriage really does change things. We feel finalized and steady. It stabilized a lot of things that other people take for granted," Johnson said.

An interesting perspective was provided by the Deputy Mayor, who performed the ceremony:

Partying with Best and Navarrete cost Deputy Mayor James Bruno a bit of soul-searching.

"I really wrestled with it," said Bruno, who is Catholic.

When he got a phone call asking him to perform the ceremony, he thought about what his constituents faced, agonized for a little while, and decided to officiate.

"I've had gay neighbors for 17 years. They cut their grass like everybody else. They argue like everybody else. It seems to me, they're married like everybody else. If you take the sex thing out of it, I think people would say, 'OK, I have no problem with it,' " Bruno said.