Same-sex couples
in some California counties will be able to marry as
soon as June 14, the president of California's county clerks
association said.
Stephen Weir, who
heads the California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials, said Monday he was told by the Office of Vital
Records that clerks would be authorized to hand out
marriage licenses as soon as that date, which is a
Saturday and exactly 30 days after the California
supreme court ruled that gay marriage should be legal.
The court's
decisions typically take effect after 30 days, barring
further legal action.
''They are
shooting for the 14th,'' said Weir, adding that the state
planned to give California's 58 counties advice this week
for implementing the historic change so local
officials can start planning.
Suanne Buggy, a
spokeswoman for the California Department of Public
Health, which oversees the vital records office, would not
confirm Monday that state officials have settled the
matter of when counties can or must start extending
marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
''We will be
getting guidance out to the counties soon,'' Buggy said.
According to
Weir, it would be up to each county clerk to decide whether
to open their offices to gay and lesbian couples on that
Saturday or to wait until the following Monday.
Some clerks have
said they would try to accommodate couples at the
earliest possible date, depending on their staffing and
anticipated demand, he said.
If the court's
decision does take effect on June 14, couples could, in
theory, plan to obtain their licenses and take their vows at
12:01 a.m. that day, he said.
As it happens,
Weir's office in Martinez already holds open hours on the
second Saturday of each month, so serving couples who want
to get hitched as soon as possible won't be a problem,
he said. He and his partner of 18 years hope to be the
first ones to tie the knot.
''Just because we
have been so close to it, and so far, I would really
like to be first,'' Weir said.
An effort,
however, is under way to stay the supreme court's decision
until voters can decide the issue with an initiative planned
for the November ballot. The measure would overrule
the justices' decision and amend the state
constitution to ban gay marriage.
Justices have
until the ruling's effective date to weigh the request, but
could give themselves longer to consider it, attorneys have
said. Another complicating factor is that the supreme
court also directed a midlevel appeals court that
upheld the state's one man-one woman marriage laws a
year ago to issue a new order legalizing same-sex marriage,
and it's not clear when the appeals court would
comply.
Massachusetts is
the only other state to legalize gay marriage, something
it did in 2004. More than 9,500 same-sex couples in that
state have wed. (Lisa Leff, AP)
