By Shereen Siewert, Gannett Wisconsin
PESHTIGO, Wis. — When Tomek Bohaczek married his best friend at an emotional ceremony in April, all six people in the courtroom, including the judge who performed the ceremony, cheered, and the best man wiped tears from his eyes.
But for the next six weeks, the couple's joy was dampened by the knowledge that their marriage wasn't legal in Wisconsin because both spouses are men. That all changed June 6, when U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb struck down the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Bohaczek, a 43-year-old shift manager at Walmart, and Will Boyd-Bohaczek, a 33-year-old sales representative, met online early last year when Boyd-Bohaczek lived in Wausau and Bohaczek lived in Peshtigo. Weeks after they began to chat online, the two met in person. In December, when Bohaczek proposed, Boyd-Bohaczek eagerly accepted.
The couple couldn't legally marry in Wisconsin, so they planned an intimate ceremony in Illinois, where same-sex marriage became legal in November. They married at a Cook County Courthouse near Chicago and celebrated with an authentic Polish meal at a Chicago restaurant before starting their new life together in Peshtigo.