By Zelie Pollon
SANTA FE, N.M., Aug 23 (Reuters) – Jubilant gay and lesbian
couples crowded county offices in the artsy southwestern
community of Santa Fe on Friday seeking marriage licenses after
a judge ruled that it would be discriminatory to deny same-sex
couples the right to wed.
The New Mexico decision ended a lawsuit filed by two men,
Alex Hanna and Yon Hudson, after they were refused a marriage
license by the clerk of Santa Fe County earlier this year.
“It is the first time that a judge in New Mexico has
determined that the constitution and laws of New Mexico require
marriage equality,” said Brian Egolf, a lawyer and state
legislator who represented Hanna and Hudson. “We’re very excited
for our clients.”
Thirteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow
same-sex marriage.
In her ruling, which was issued late Thursday, District
Judge Sarah Singleton said there was nothing in New Mexico’s law
or constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage.
She ordered the Santa Fe county clerk, Geraldine Salazar, to
begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples or appear in court to
explain why she shouldn’t have to.
On Friday, Salazar complied. She said she had always
supported gay marriage, but feared that the licenses would be
considered illegal.
“I am a fervent supporter of same-sex marriage in New Mexico
and have always believed that the restrictive and antiquated
statutes in our state must fall to the principles of equal
protection embodied in our constitution,” Salazar said in a
statement Friday.
Couples began gathering in her office Friday afternoon,
amid cheers, laughter, tears and hugs.
In 2004, the county clerk in Sandoval County, New Mexico,
began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but stopped
doing so after the state attorney general said gay marriage was
not legal in New Mexico.
The case that prompted this week’s ruling was one of several
filed recently in New Mexico on the question of same-sex
marriage. The state Supreme Court was initially asked to rule on
them, but asked lower courts to handle them first.
Two women who sued in one of the other suits, filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union, were also married on Friday with
a license issued in Santa Fe by Salazar.
Jen Roper and Angelique Neuman were married in the Christus
St. Vincent cancer center where Roper was undergoing treatment,
the ACLU said in a press release.
“We are so very happy to be officially married after 21
years together,” Roper said in a statement. “Now we just ask
that the courts move quickly to ensure that our marriages are
fully recognized and respected by the state.”
A county clerk in southern New Mexico had already begun
issuing licenses in advance of the ruling.
“Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but so be it,” said Do +/-a Ana
County Clerk Lynn Ellins on Wednesday. “Equal protection should
apply to everyone.”
He told Reuters that the first same-sex couple to obtain a
license said they had waited 31 years to wed.
(Editing by Sharon Bernstein and Lisa Shumaker)
