Did I make this up?

[conuly]

Wasn't there a case a few years ago, prior to the recent marriage equality ruling, where a clerk handed out marriage certificates to same-sex couples despite that not being allowed in their state?

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

We had a rogue clerk in PA a couple years ago handing out licenses, but I highly doubt he was the only one.http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/12/montgomery_county_court_clerk.html

[conuly]

Thank you so much.

[hopefulnebula]

There was a clerk in California who did it in like 2003, I think. And I know that some clerks in Boulder County, CO did it last year or the year before.

[conuly]

Thanks :)

[siderea]

The Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, directed city clerks to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, back in 2004. The state of California moved to block it and all the marriage licenses issued were revoked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_2004_same-sex_weddings

[conuly]

Oh, gosh. That's not even what I was thinking of, but I remember the Miss Manners reply to it! (Which was that no, you're not obligated to return wedding gifts just because the state decides to be an asshole. Your friends and family love you, they don't care about the legality.) Judith Martin can be awesome sometimes.

[siderea]

My impression of Judith Martin is that she's awesome most of the time.

In one of her anthologies, she has a letter where she was asked, upon being introduced to a man and his husband, what do you say; her response was, "How do you do? How do you do?"

[siderea]

BTW: Ever heard this?

[conuly]

Nooooo. Thanks!

[hopefulnebula]

That's the one I was thinking of, thank you!

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I remember something like that.

[conuly]

I'm not just crazy! Yay!

[redbird]

ISTR that Multnomah County Oregon (which includes Portland) did this for a bit; I know that for a while the county policy was to issue no marriage licenses at all, because they weren't being allowed to issue them to same-sex couples.

And the mayor of New Paltz performed a few same-sex weddings despite lack of any state-level authorization; I think those were declared null, but don't remember the details. (This was before the New York state government said "full faith and credit, folks. If someone is married in Massachusetts or Ontario, we will treat them as married in New York.")

Gavin Newsom, for one

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

It's real. When Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco in 2004, he directed the city/county clerk's office to do this. Several other city and county offices across the U.S. briefly did it as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_2004_same-sex_weddings