Gay marriage catches conservative Utah off guard
A day after a judge’s surprise ruling overturned Utah’s same-sex marriage ban, at least one county clerk intended to open early Saturday to issue licenses.
About 40 minutes north of Salt Lake City, about 300 hundred people showed up at the Weber County Clerk’s Office on Saturday afternoon but were later turned away without marriage licenses.
Clerk Ricky Hatch apologized and said that county officials had told him that opening for special circumstances may violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection. Hatch told The Associated Press he was also told the county’s standard security requirements were not in place for a Saturday opening.
The confusion Saturday and reports of other crowds scrambling to find an open office illustrated how gay marriage caught many in Utah off guard.
On Friday, more than 100 couples rushed to wed in Salt Lake County shortly after the ruling was released. State officials slammed the decision and moved to stop licenses from being issued.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/gay-couples-wed-in-utah-after-judge-overturns-ban/2013/12/20/6599357a-69d5-11e3-997b-9213b17dac97_story.html
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