JOSHUA TREE — With a great deal of media fanfare, openly gay Raymond Gregory was recently named Chief of Police for Indio, La Quinta and Coachella in Riverside County.

We interviewed Capt. Gregory in July 2008 when he was in Joshua Tree to officiate at the wedding of Craig Zimmerman to John Rupe. Theirs was among the first same-sex weddings in the Basin.

The story first appeared in the July 2008 Out & About newsletter (which became Hi-Desert LGBT News a year later). The original report was from the period after the ruling that granted gay families the freedom to marry and before that freedom was stripped away following the war on gay families waged by the Catholic and Mormon churches.

During the 2008 interview, Capt. Gregory made clear that his appointment as acting chief of police was thought to be temporary.

Shortly after the original interview, Capt. Gregory married his own partner. They have since adopted two children.

The Zimmerman-Rupes, ultimately relocated to Washington State where their union is not recognized even though their marriage was among those performed before Prop 8 barred such unions.