Parish to OK gay marriage licenses

Staff Report
St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court Cliff Dressel made the decision to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses Monday afternoon at the advice of the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association’s legal counsel, he said.
“We’re up and ready and waiting, but we didn’t have any applicants yesterday,” Dressel said this morning. “We had phone calls, and we told them yesterday afternoon they could come and get a license when they want. I’m assuming we’ll get some today.”
On Monday, the association said that because several parish clerks of court had or would begin issuing the licenses, clerks should begin changes consistent with the Supreme Court opinion to avoid the confusion of multiple starting dates.
That was a reversal from Friday, when the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association said clerks should wait 25 days after the decision, allowing time for the high court to consider a rehearing.
On Monday morning, Dressel said he planned to follow the clerks association’s advice Friday to not issue same-sex marriage licenses until the state’s appeals were finished in regard to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
Also on Monday, two New Orleans men celebrated what apparently was the first same-sex wedding in Louisiana as the last holdout state began issuing licenses to same-sex couples after the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that marriage is a fundamental right for all Americans.
The threat of lawsuits may have hurried the decision, said John Hill of the Forum for Equality Louisiana, an LGBT rights group that helped arrange the wedding of Michael Robinson, 41, and Earl Benjamin, 39.
Gay rights advocates said Louisiana had been the last state to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses when its clerks of court got the go-ahead Monday.
“So our attorney says you can issue the license as soon as your office is ready to do so,” the email from Executive Director Debbie D. Hudnall said.
In a news release Monday afternoon, the Forum for Equality Louisiana applauded the Louisiana Association of Clerks of Court for reversing their decision Friday not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The forum sent the clerks association a letter late Sunday saying that clerks of court would open themselves up to lawsuits if they refused to grant something the Supreme Court had found to be a fundamental right.
Clerks of court in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes were making preparations Monday afternoon to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, The Times in Houma reported.
KATC reported that the Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court’s Office started issuing licenses at 1:30 p.m. Monday and issued six licenses before it closed.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.