At 12 a.m. Thursday, Minnesota and Rhode Island officially became the latest among 13 states -- plus the District of Columbia -- to allow same-sex marriage, CNN reports. Both states passed applicable laws in May. At midnight, Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak presided over the unions of 42 same-sex couples at city hall. The couples were scheduled to be at the altar early, so Rybak could move the ceremony along in time for the first wedding vows to be over right when the clock struck 12. In Rhode Island, the first marriages were planned for Thursday morning. The sponsor of the state's same-sex marriage law, Sen. Donna Nesselbush, planned to be at Pawtucket City Hall to greet them, she said. "As the only openly gay senator and as the prime sponsor of the bill in the Senate, [Thursday] is a day that I wish to remember both professionally and personally," she said.
