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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Demand Brisk For Same-|Sex Marriage Licenses

(CN) - Now that same-sex marriage is legal in North Carolina, gay and lesbian couples are enthusiastically acting on their ability to get married in their home state.

Wake County Register of Deeds Laura Riddick says her Raleigh, NC office is quickly approaching the issuance of its 100th same-sex marriage license following a Friday ruling that lifted the state's ban on gay marriage.

"It wasn't a question of, 'If?' but, 'When?'" Riddick said. And when U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn's decision to overturn the 2012 constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman became official at 5:32 p.m. Friday, the Wake County Register of Deeds immediately began processing the applications of scores of applicants who had been waiting in its office.

The office had already prepared its own gender-neutral forms for the occasion, which office employees were required to manually modify. But Riddick hopes to have new forms with separate fields for both gender and surname online soon.

As of 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, Riddick has issued 92 marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and says she is "eagerly awaiting the 100th customer."

The Wake County office was surrounded by hundreds of people Friday, including members of the media and supporters of gay marriage. Riddick asserts there were no protestors that day, but she has since received multiple letters, emails and voicemails asking her to resign. "It was a real eye-opener to see people with such vitriol and hatred," Riddick said.

Most of the unhappy citizens claim it was wrong for her to hold the office open until 9 p.m. Friday to process the huge onset of applications, but Riddick assured, "Nobody seemed to think it was unfair of me to hold the office open until 8:30 p.m. on December 31, 2012 for new tax laws."

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