Taos County, New Mexico, welcome to the fold:
Taos County will become the sixth county in New Mexico to issue same-gender marriage licenses, after 8th Judicial District Judge Jeff McElroy issued a Writ of Mandamus compelling the County Clerk’s Office to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples who apply.
If any are confused about why New Mexico is allowing marriage equality county by county, here is a short primer which explains the unique position New Mexico is in, having never explicitly allowed OR banned marriage equality:
But our laws, at least, often did not wade into the question of gender one way or another — until the 1990s, when anti-gay-marriage forces began lobbying state legislatures to revise state constitutions, and pushed the Defense of Marriage Act through Congress. More recently, in a smaller, but growing, number of states, marriage-equality advocates have succeeded in establishing — through the courts or legislative action or voter referendums — that all adults can marry the person of their choosing, regardless of gender.
Alone among the states, New Mexico never jumped on the definitional bandwagon. It never banned same-sex unions, and it never specifically permitted them, either. And in the absence of clarity, American standards of equality and non-discrimination won out.
The article points out that the legislature and the governor will now surely come under intense pressure to amend the state’s Constitution and, of course, encourages them not to pay attention to the haters.
[h/t Joe]
