Wedding bells for lifelong lesbian couple

A LESBIAN couple from Iowa, USA, has celebrated their 72-year relationship by finally deciding to tie the knot.

Vivian Boyack, aged 91, and Alice Dubes, aged 90, first met growing up in their hometown of Yale in 1942.

In 1947 they moved to Davenport, Iowa, where Boyack worked as a teacher and Dubes in the accounts office of a local newspaper.

Although same-sex marriage has been legal in the state of Iowa since 2009, the couple waited until last Saturday, September 6 to finally get hitched.

They married at a small ceremony attended by close friends and family in Davenport’s First Christian Church, and held hands throughout the ceremony which was officiated by Reverend Linda Hunsaker.

Hunsaker said of the marriage: “This is a celebration of something that should have happened a very long time ago.”

The couple have shared a long and happy life together, visiting all 50 US states, all the Canadian provinces and even making it over to the UK twice.

Boyack said that maintaining a relationship such as theirs took a lot of love and hard work, but lifelong friend Jerry Yeast, 73, said: “I’ve known these two women all my life, and I can tell you, they’re special.”