State sees first gay marriages

15 pairs get licenses to tie the knot

STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES
Kristin Seaton, left, and Jennifer Rambo, kiss while waiting for their marriage license Saturday, May 10, 2014 at the Carroll County Courthouse in Eureka Springs. The office closed shortly after opening telling those waiting in line to leave, but opened at 10 a.m. and issued the first marriage license to a same-sex couple in Arkansas.
STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES Kristin Seaton, left, and Jennifer Rambo, kiss while waiting for their marriage license Saturday, May 10, 2014 at the Carroll County Courthouse in Eureka Springs. The office closed shortly after opening telling those waiting in line to leave, but opened at 10 a.m. and issued the first marriage license to a same-sex couple in Arkansas.

EUREKA SPRINGS -- Two women from Fort Smith became the first same-sex couple in Arkansas to receive a marriage license.

Kristin Seaton, 27, and Jennifer Rambo, 26, got the license about 10 a.m. Saturday at the Carroll County Courthouse in Eureka Springs, where marriage licenses are normally issued from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

They were the first of 15 homosexual couples who got marriage licenses. The county clerk's office in Eureka Springs was the only one open Saturday after late Friday's ruling by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza, which struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriages.

Couples traveled from as far away as Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee to get licenses Saturday in Eureka Springs.

Immediately after receiving their license, Seaton and Rambo were married on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse by Laura Phillips of Fayetteville, a minister ordained through the online Universal Life Church. Phillips performed eight other weddings Saturday in and around the courthouse.

"We'll be doing a ceremony still in October," said Rambo, a junior English major at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. "We just didn't want anything taken away from us, so we got married today."

An appeal of Piazza's ruling is expected.

Seaton, a 2010 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a former Razorback volleyball player, said she proposed to Rambo in March. They've been a couple for four years.

Seaton and Rambo were in Little Rock when they heard about Piazza's ruling.

They immediately drove back to Fort Smith to get their birth certificates, then on to Eureka Springs. They arrived about 2:30 a.m. and slept in the car in front of the courthouse.

Seaton and Rambo hurried to get in line first at 5 a.m. when they saw another couple heading toward the door of the courthouse.

A crowd of about 100 was in line by 9 a.m.

Lana Gordon, a deputy county clerk, arrived at the courthouse at 9 a.m. and opened the second-story entrance, but she told people in line that she wasn't authorized to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"I have no authorization from anybody," Gordon told Zeek Taylor, a Eureka Springs artist who was seeking a marriage license Saturday so he could marry his domestic partner of 42 years. He was ultimately successful in securing a license.

Taylor told Gordon that he needed her name because a civil suit would likely be filed.

The volume of the concern on the courthouse steps increased when people thought they were being turned away.

Paul Wank of Eureka Springs, a retired librarian, told Gordon to call her boss, County Clerk Jaime Correia, to get authorization to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples Saturday.

Gordon said Correia was at a funeral and couldn't be reached.

Gordon went into the marriage license office but didn't open the office door. The crowd, which by then was inside the courthouse and on the outside steps, began to chant "Open the door."

Three Eureka Springs police officers arrived 10 minutes later, and Gordon announced though the police that the office had closed at 9:30 a.m. Officers told people to leave the building.

About half of the people in line left. Seaton and Rambo began to weep, but they didn't leave their spot as first in line.

Jane Osborn, a circuit and county deputy clerk, reopened the office about 10 minutes later and began issuing marriage licenses. Osborn said she was scheduled to work in the early voting office in the courthouse Saturday, but she and Gordon decided to switch roles.

"I think she wasn't expecting [the crowd]," Osborn said of Gordon. "She was uncomfortable with the whole process."

Gordon said she'd been instructed by Correia, who she had managed to reach by phone, not to talk to the media.

Osborn said she issued 15 marriage licenses Saturday, all of them to same-sex couples.

Rambo said she just had a feeling they shouldn't leave their spot in line.

"I'm so glad we didn't," she said. "I said a little prayer. Love conquers all."

Seaton said the morning had been an emotional ride.

"I'm so happy," she said. "I just feel so much love."

Beau Satori, a former Eureka Springs mayor, said he performed about six weddings Saturday on the second-floor balcony of the courthouse, indicating most if not all of those who got licenses Saturday were married on the spot.

In his ruling Friday, Piazza struck down Arkansas' prohibition on same-sex marriage in a ruling that equates the ban with now-discredited laws that once barred marriage between different races.

In determining that the Arkansas ban violates the state and U.S. constitutions, Piazza closed his 13-page ruling by predicting that the most extreme prejudice against gay marriage will eventually pass, citing the U.S. Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, that invalidated laws against interracial marriage in 1967.

"It has been over 40 years since Mildred Loving was given the right to marry the person of her choice. The hatred and fears have long since vanished, and she and her husband lived full lives together; so it will be for the same-sex couples," the judge wrote. "It is time to let that beacon of freedom shine brighter on all our brothers and sisters. We will be stronger for it."

Piazza's decision is not the final word on the issue. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, despite his personal support of same-sex marriage, has promised to file an appeal with the Arkansas Supreme Court.

The judge's ruling did not include a stay, with the plaintiffs' attorneys saying the ruling means county clerks should begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex applicants when their offices open Monday morning. Eureka Springs, a tourist town that promotes weddings, was unique because it issues marriage licenses on Saturdays.

"Our office is focused on obtaining a stay," Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for McDaniel, said via text message Saturday. "We are communicating with Association of Arkansas Counties staff to help them formulate their advice to the county clerks, but we do not represent clerks. They are independently elected officials who will follow the advice of their own legal counsel and proceed as they see fit."

Osborn said her husband told her there was a long line out front and he wondered if she would lose her job if she stayed opened past the usual closing time of 1 p.m. Saturday.

Osborn said she called Correia and asked if she could keep the office open past 1 p.m. because about 100 people were still in line. Osborn said Correia told her licenses issued after the normal closing time wouldn't be valid.

"For that reason, we're closing," Osborn told reporters shortly after 1 p.m. "Because they would all be for naught."

When told that some people in line might consider her a hero, Osborn said, "Oh, well I'm happy to be here. ... I'm doing it because I'm happy to do it."

Osborn said she's not opposed to same-sex marriage.

"I think it's everyone's right, and I'm happy for the people who were here," she said. "Some of them have been married or together for 30, 40 or 50 years, and I think if they choose to get married, they should have the right to do that."

Wank is one of those who has been with the same person for 50 years. He and his partner stood in line for hours Saturday but weren't able to get a license before the office closed. Osborn said they could return Monday.

Cheryl Maples, the Searcy lawyer who filed the lawsuit that led to Friday's ruling, said it was an emotional day for her, too.

"That was the first same-sex marriage in the state of Arkansas, ever," she said. "I think what is going on today is a positive step for where we're going, very positive. I had to absorb the atmosphere. It is just so emotional for me."

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are 20 same-sex couples, 12 who want to get married in Arkansas and eight who have legally married in other jurisdictions and want their unions legally recognized here, Piazza wrote in his ruling.

Trey Weir, executive director of the Arkansas Initiative for Marriage Equality, praised Piazza's ruling.

"Yesterday, we saw the Constitution of the United States of America put into action," he said in a news release. "After working tirelessly since November of 2012 to prepare and circulate a petition to put same-sex marriage on the ballot in 2016, the Arkansas Initiative for Marriage Equality will be taking a step back to discuss their next steps as this case gets appealed."

Weir said a rally and news conference will be held at 7 a.m. Monday at the Pulaski County Courthouse. Ordained ministers will be present for on-the-spot marriages, he said.

Eureka Springs has long been at the forefront of gay rights in Arkansas.

In 2007, Eureka Springs adopted Arkansas' first domestic-partnership registry and amended the city's personnel policy handbook to include sexual orientation in its equal-employment opportunity policy and unlawful harassment policy.

In November 2012, the Eureka Springs City Council passed a resolution in support of marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Mayor Morris Pate said at the time that the resolution has no legal significance because Arkansas doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. Passing the resolution was symbolic, he said.

A Section on 05/11/2014

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