(Shari Vialpando-Hill/AP)
Will New Mexico be number fourteen? It surely is starting to look that way:
The county clerk in the New Mexico state capital and the heart of this state’s gay rights movement began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples Friday, a court-ordered move that came just two days after a county clerk in the south decided on his own to recognize same-sex marriage.
The first couple to get a license in the state’s third-largest county was Santa Fe County Commissioner Liz Stefanics and Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico, a gay rights group. Stefanics is a former Democratic state senator from Santa Fe.
[…]
The order late Thursday from District Judge Sarah Singleton represents the first time a New Mexico judge has ruled that gay and lesbian couples can be married, said state Rep. Brian Egolf, a lawyer representing Hanna and Hudson in the suit.
Siegle called Friday’s events a “culmination of years of effort for gay and lesbian rights.” She has been lobbying on the issue for more than two decades.
The article points out that Dona Ana county in the southern part of the state began issuing marriage licenses on Wednesday, and that over ninety couples have already taken advantage of it.
Of course, news has also come out that two dozen GOP representatives, in typical fashion, are suing to stop the inevitable tide of the correct side of history in New Mexico.
