County Clerk offices nationwide turned
away gay and lesbian couples looking to get married Thursday during the
12th annual Freedom To Marry protest.
Organizers hope to draw attention to
the fact that gay couples cannot marry in 48 states. Thirty states
have adopted constitutional amendments that restrict marriage to a
heterosexual union. Other states have enacted laws that ban gay
couples from marrying.
In historic Charlottesville,
Virginia, where voters banned gay marriage by constitutional
amendment in 2006, six gay couples seeking a marriage license were
turned away, reports the Waynesboro News Virginian.
Several couples handed county clerks
who denied their requests chocolates packaged in a big heart-shaped
box.
“I pay taxes. I'm a citizen of
Virginia. I'm a citizen of the United States,” Nancy
Nolte-Shotwell, who wants to marry her girlfriend, Emily, of nine
years, told the paper. “I deserve the same rights as everyone
else.”
Five couples were turned away at the
Salt Lake County Clerk's office, The Associated Press reports.
Voters in Utah approved a constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage in 2004. The measure also denies lawmakers the option of
enacting domestic partnerships.
The Legislature is currently mulling a
bill that would grant domestic partnerships to gay and lesbian
couples. To make that happen, lawmakers would need to alter a
portion of the constitution, a move most Utahans disagree with. But
the state's popular governor, Republican Jon Hunsman, says he backs
the bill.
Drew Cloud and his partner, Jacob
Whipple, were among the gay couples. “The fact that the state
won't give us a piece of paper doesn't mean we came home
empty-handed,” Cloud said. “We still have each other.”
This year's 12th annual
event might have been the most visible sign yet that gays and
lesbians consider the right to marry a denied civil right. It comes
after the gay community lost three bruising gay marriage fights in
California, Arizona and Florida on November 4. In Arizona, voters
had rejected a similar measure in 2004. California gay couples won
the right to marry in May, 2008 when the state Supreme Court struck
down a law limiting marriage to heterosexual partners. But
Proposition 8 defined marriage as solely between a man and a woman in
a constitutional amendment.
A more confrontational protest took
place in Dallas, Texas, reports the Dallas Voice. After a
wedding ceremony presided by the Rev. Daniel Kanter, senior minister
at First Unitarian Church of Dallas, where lesbian couple Kim Davis
and Rose Preizler exchanged vows, about 20 protesters accompanied the
couple inside the clerk's office to request a marriage license. The
paper reports that the event lasted about an hour and became heated
when the couple was denied a license by Clerk John Warren, but ended
peacefully.
The couple has been together about two
years and legally married last summer in Canada. That marriage,
however, is not recognized by the state of Texas.
Troy Smith, a coordinator at a Las
Vegas wedding chapel, and his partner of six years, Justin Gibson
were among the fifteen couples turned down at Las Vegas' downtown
marriage bureau.
“I sell it every day, but I can't buy
it myself,” Smith told The Associated Press. “It just
about breaks my heart. It's not fair.”