Clerks see boom in same-sex couple marriages

Number has risen sharply in past 6 months

Six months ago — amid joy, angst and an uncertain legal future — a Tallahassee federal judge told Florida’s court clerks to follow his order and issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

Since then, thousands of same-sex couples have gotten married in Florida, even before the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling last week.

Exactly how many is impossible to say. State and county officials do not keep track, but most Central Florida court clerks are reporting sharp increases in the number of licenses they’ve issued.

In Orange County, the rate is up 33 percent compared with the weekly average of the past four years. In Brevard County, it is up 35 percent.

The likely reason, said Orlando civil-rights attorney Mary Meeks, is “selfevident.”

“All of the sudden, gay people started to get married,” she said. “I would suggest that gay people want to get married and do get married at the same rate as straight people.”

Same-sex marriages began in Florida on Jan. 6— Jan. 5 in Miami-Dade, where a local judge handed down a special order.

In the 24 hours that followed, more than 1,232 same-sex couples got marriage licenses in Florida, according to clerks across the state. Orange County ranked No. 2 with 164. Broward County led the state with 184.

In the days that followed, almost all of Florida’s clerks stopped counting how many marriage licenses they issued to same-sex couples. There was no easy way to do it, they said.

Licenses on rise

What Central Florida clerks do report, however, is that issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples has become routine.

There have been no reports of demonstrations, disruptions or acts of civil disobedience at their offices, they said.

Seminole County Clerk Maryanne Morse is one of only two clerks in Central Florida who has continued to count the number of same-sex-marriage licenses issued.

Through the end of May, it was 120, she said, 9 percent of the county’s overall total.

“It’s less than 10 percent of our total marriage licenses, so it’s not a big deal,” she said.

In Volusia County, the other county still keeping track, the clerk’s office reported that it had issued 173 marriage licenses to samesex couples through the end of May, 10 percent of its total.

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, one of the groups that led the fight for same-sex marriage, put the number of gay and lesbian marriages in the Sunshine State at “thousands and thousands.”

A review by the Orlando Sentinel found that the average number of marriage licenses issued so far this year across Central Florida is running 26 percent ahead of the average rate for the past four years.

Brevard County has seen the biggest increase — 35 percent — followed by Orange County with 33 percent, Seminole and Volusia counties with 27 percent each and Osceola County with 19 percent.

In Lake County, the number is down slightly, from an average 53 licenses issued per week to 51. The clerk there, Neil Kelly, stopped employees in his office from performing weddings of any kind in January because of the change, he said.

That’s because the ruling by the Tallahassee federal judge included “inconsistencies” about whether it applied to Lake County, he said. Kelly said Thursday that he would finish a reevaluation of that no-moreweddings policy next week.

Other Florida clerks also no longer perform weddings, including those in Duval, Clay and Baker counties, said Sean Hudson, spokesman for the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers Association.

Derek Igou, chief of operations at the Duval clerk’s office, said that was not because of opposition to same-sex marriage. It was because performing weddings cost too much. Like Lake, Duval has had a decline in marriage licenses this year.

Same-sex marriage got off to a rocky start in Florida. In late December and January, just days before the weddings were to begin, most of Florida’s court clerks said they would ignore the federal court order that required them to issue them.

During the next three weeks, there would be other legal challenges, a clarification from the federal judge and an about-face by clerks statewide.

Historic ruling

Last week came the watershed ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered every state to allow same-sex couples to marry.

In Kissimmee, Gerry Gershonowitz, 58, who married his husband11years ago in Massachusetts, called the ruling “a magnificent day.”

The ruling’s greatest impact was on 14 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, where same-sex marriage was still banned.

For Florida, the decision ended all uncertainty about the future of same-sex marriage, shutting down a series of appeals by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Iowa’s experience

In 2009, Iowa became the third state to allow samesex marriage after a ruling by its state Supreme Court.

Since then, more than 11,000 same-sex couples have gotten married there, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

“I think it’s fair to say that as of now, for the generic member of the electorate, it isn’t much of an issue,” said Mack Shelley, chairman of the political-science department at Iowa State University. “I think a lot of people have figured out that we’re not being destroyed by earthquakes or any type of divine intervention.”

But there is still political opposition, he said.

In 2010, three members of the Iowa Supreme Court, including the chief justice, were kicked out of office by voters. Two years later, opponents campaigned to oust a fourth member but were unsuccessful.

John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer who heads the Florida Family Council, which led the successful drive in 2008 that added a ban on same-sex marriage to Florida’s constitution, has vowed to keep fighting.

He called the U.S. Supreme Court ruling “moral and legal madness.”

“We [will] double down on our efforts to rebuild a culture of marriage,” he wrote in a prepared statement. “We will never concede, and we will never give up.”