Jack Baker was a stage name used by Richard John Baker in the 1970s to promote full equality for gay men and women. A degree of anonymity allowed privacy. He and Michael McConnell applied in Hennepin County for a license to marry, then appealed its denial to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which dismissed the claim. The decision in Baker v. Nelson was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which, in 1972, was required to review a State?s interpretation of federal law. The case was dismissed "for want of a substantial federal question." The State argued successfully that the marriage license issued previously in Blue Earth County proved that the "Questions Raised by This Appeal Are Moot." Before the Minnesota court halted marriage licenses to same-sex couples, which were not forbidden by existing statutes, Baker and McConnell re-applied, this time in Blue Earth County, succeeded and became the ?first same-sex couple in history to be legally married?. The 1972 decision "does not reach back to Baker and McConnell" since the two obtained their license and were married "a full six weeks" previously. The National Archives came to the same conclusion. 

January 1st, 1942 in (Age 82)