A lesbian couple who have shared their lives for over five decades will become the first couple to wed in San Francisco City Hall today. Anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps and his congregation have announced plans to picket the wedding.

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons, who were the first couple to be married in 2004 during the 'Winter of Love', will be married – this time legally - by Mayor Gavin Newsom in a ceremony set to begin at 4:30PM. The couple were plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court decision that ultimately struck down the State's ban on gay marriage. It will be the only marriage held at San Fransisco City Hall today.

Tuesday, the city plans to make gay marriage available to about 130 couples who have made appointments to obtain a marriage license.

On the Westboro Baptist Church website godhatesfags.com the group announced their protest with this post, “We have a message for you [C]alifornia – fags doom nations... Just as when San Francisco lawlesss[l]y married fags in 2004, WBC will be there to remind you that it never has been and never will be okay to be a fag.”

The group also plans to protest gay weddings as they begin en masse in San Francisco on Tuesday. In a press release the group said, “WBC will picket the godless and blasphemous same-sex marriage farce scheduled to take place in God-forsaken, Hell-bound San Francisco... God Hates Fags & Fag-Enablers. Ergo, God hates the people participating in the filthy same-sex marriage orgy and Satanic Sodomitical outrage masquerading as holy matrimony. GOD HATES CALIFORNIA.”

The Westboro Baptist Church, whose members mostly include family members, came to national attention when they started picketing the funeral processions of soldiers killed during the Iraq war. The organization is headed by Fred Phelps and based in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps believes dead soldiers returning from Iraq are God's punishment for American support of gays and lesbians.

In a email to On Top Magazine, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), a pro-gay group, Director of Communications Steve Ralls responded to the Church's planned protest: “The hatred of Fred Phelps will never be any match for the love that couples across California are celebrating today... Not even the darkest forces can cast a shadow over the joy that so many families, partners and loved ones are treasuring in California today.”

Photo credit David Shankbone