A Socastee man who helped spark the gay marriage movement 20 years ago, is doing it again. The same sex marriage pioneer hopes to be the first to get married in the District of Columbia.

In 1990, Craig Dean and his partner at the time, Patrick Gill, applied for a marriage license in the District of Columbia and filed a lawsuit after the license was denied. It was the first suit of its kind anywhere, and Dean soon appeared on national talk shows, like Oprah and Phil Donahue. "It was something that was so out of the blue and so beyond people's wildest dreams," Dean said.

But the legal challenge failed, and Gill died of AIDS in 1997. Dean became a national symbol of the same sex marriage movement.

Then last month, the District of Columbia council passed a same sex marriage law.

Dean, who now lives in Socastee, wants to be first in line with his current partner, John Blevins, to be married in D.C. The District doesn't have a residency requirement to get a marriage license. Dean said, "So that means, any gay couple from anywhere in the United States could go to the District of Columbia and be legally married in the District of Columbia, which would then make them legally married in five other US states."

After his first attempt at marriage failed 20 years ago, Dean says it's important for him to try to be the first this time, as a sort of vindication. "A symbolic gesture as to say to put right a wrong," Dean explained.

Blevins says getting married was something he thought would never happen to him, but he hopes to be an example for others. "I feel like it's going to be a big positive thing for all other gay people to look up at."

Dean says the same sex marriage movement has gained a lot of momentum, after he and his late partner threw a pebble in a pond 20 years ago. "And there's ripples and you never know where those ripples are going to affect," Dean said.

Congress must approve the D.C. law, which is expected to happen, and the law should go into effect in March.

South Carolina is not one of the five states that would recognize a gay marriage in Washington, D.C.

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