Gay marriage legal in New Mexico, sort of

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

County clerks in New Mexico will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a state judge ruled Monday that the state’s marriage law, which uses gender-neutral terms to define domestic relationships, doesn’t specifically prohibit gay marriage.

State District Judge Alan Malott on Monday ordered Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar to begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples immediately. The ruling echoed another district judge’s ruling last week that ordered Santa Fe County to begin issuing licenses.

Six same-sex couples that had been denied marriage licenses in the two counties had filed a lawsuit challenging those decisions.

In anticipation of the decision, both county clerks had already begun printing gender-neutral marriage licenses. Last week, the county clerk in Dona Ana County, in southern New Mexico, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On Tuesday, clerks in Valencia County and San Miguel County said they, too, would begin issuing licenses.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/08/28/gay-marriage-legal-in-new-mexico-sort-of/

[duhneece]

1. I'm in Otero County, NM and our Republican county won't go for this

We're pushing for a public hearing, so we can at least discuss the issue and a friend, who is active in PFLAG is finding out how many signatures it would take to put it on the ballot, if that's even a possibility.
This is huge for NM.