Oklahoma's largest LGBT rights advocate
said this week that the state has issued more than 3,200 marriage
licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
“It's going to level off, but I don't
look for it to happen soon,” Toby Jenkins, executive director of
Oklahomans for Equality, told the Tulsa
World. “We're still going to see a high volume of same-sex
marriages. I don't look for it to ebb and flow for at least four
years.”
On October 6, the Supreme Court refused
to hear appeals in cases challenging gay marriage bans in Utah,
Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana and Oklahoma, allowing rulings striking
down the bans to take effect.
Jenkins said that such licenses have
been issued in 23 of Oklahoma's 77 counties. According to the Tulsa
World, nearly 70 percent (2,200) of those licenses were issued in
the state's two most populous counties: Oklahoma and Tulsa counties.
Plaintiff couple Sharon Baldwin and
Mary Bishop, who filed their case shortly after voters approved the
ban in 2004, were the first gay couple in Oklahoma to be issued a
marriage license.