New Mexico has become the most recent state to allow same-sex marriage as a judge responded to a couple of counties in the state that had begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on their own by declaring that according to the state's constitution same-sex marriage should be legal, according to the Associated Press.
Last week the county clerk in Santa Fe was ordered by a judge to begin issuing marriage licenses two days after a clerk in the county of Dona Ana started to do the same thing. State District Judge Alan Malott ruled on Monday that the provision in the state's constitution banning discrimination based on sexual orientation would require the state to allow same-sex marriage, according to the Associated Press.
Same-sex marriage supporters were surprised by the broadness of Malott's ruling. It was thought that he would only rule on one specific case in Santa Fe pertaining to a couple that requested an emergency ruling because one of the members is terminally ill, according to the Atlantic.
In response to the court decision the most populous county in the state, Bernalillo County, started issuing licenses on Tuesday morning when a line of over 100 people line up outside their offices in Albuquerque. Once licenses were obtained a mass wedding was planned for noon in the Civic Plaza, reports the Associated Press.
Patricia Catlett and Karen Schmiege, a couple that had been together for 25 years, were the first two to receive a marriage license.
"I am so excited I can't stand it," Schmiege told the Associated Press. "I want her to take me to Costa Rica. She promised."
Not everyone is as excited about the ruling, Christine Butler attended the hearing and believes that that the ruling is a violation of her rights, according to the Associated Press.
"I don't want to bring my children or go to places and see same-sex couples showing a lot of affection...That's against God's law," Butler said.
Republican lawmakers, led by state Sen.William Sharer, plans to file a lawsuit to stop county clerks from issuing the licenses, according to the Associated Press.
"It is inexplicable how a district court just today discovered a new definition of marriage in our laws, when our marriage law has not been changed in over a century," Sharer said.
