Gay couples line up for Montana marriage licenses

BILLINGS, Mont. — Gay couples lined up for marriage licenses at county courthouses across Montana on Thursday, a day after a federal judge tossed the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Randi Paul and Jill Houk of Billings got to the Yellowstone County Courthouse by 7 a.m. MST Thursday, an hour before it opened. Paul said the couple had considered getting married in another state and were relieved they could now do so in her home state.

“I’m a super Montanan. That’s a big part of who I am,” she said. “The prospect of getting married somewhere else is pretty upsetting. We’re going to go downstairs, get hitched and go back to work,” said Paul, a 28-year-old legal assistant.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled Wednesday that Montana’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to a man and a woman violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

“This Court recognizes that not everyone will celebrate this outcome,” Morris wrote. “This decision overturns a Montana Constitutional amendment approved by the voters of Montana. Yet the United States Constitution exists to protect disfavored minorities from the will of the majority.”

The state’s Republican attorney general, Tim Fox, plans to appeal, but he said he wouldn’t seek to block marriages in the meantime.

At least two counties — Missoula and Park — started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples Wednesday.

Among the first Montana couples to get their licenses Wednesday were Amy Wagner, 56, and Karen Langebeck, 48, who have been together for 22 years.

After hearing about the ruling, they got on the road to get their license.

“Being able to get married and introduce Karen as my wife — that’s a big deal. Now I have a way to describe this relationship that everybody understands,” Wagner said.

In Montana’s most populous county, Yellowstone, the clerk of the District Court said her office was ready to issue licenses.

“For my office, nothing will be different than any other day,” Kristie Lee Boelter said.

Also Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union will hold celebrations at county courthouses in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula. The group will provide officiants for couples who wish to marry immediately, ACLU spokeswoman Amy Cannata said.

The ruling follows a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September that struck down Idaho’s and Nevada’s bans as unconstitutional. Montana is part of the 9th Circuit, and Morris cited the appeals court’s opinion in his ruling.

“The time has come for Montana to follow all the other states within the Ninth Circuit and recognize that laws that ban same-sex marriage violate the constitutional right of same-sex couples to equal protection of the laws,” he wrote.

Four same-sex couples filed a lawsuit in May challenging Montana’s ban, including Angie and Tonya Rolando. “Love won today,” Angie Rolando said.

The couple said they plan obtain a wedding license as soon as their courthouse opens Thursday.

Montana and two other states, Kansas and South Carolina, continued their legal fight against same-sex marriage despite rulings from federal appeals courts that oversee them that concluded gay and lesbian couples have the right to wed.

In South Carolina, a judge issued the first gay marriage licenses and a couple wed Wednesday, even as the state attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block the unions.

Before Wednesday, same-sex couples could marry in 32 states, parts of Kansas and Missouri and the District of Columbia.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said in a statement that his administration is working to ensure legally married same-sex couples are afforded the same rights as all married Montana residents.

In 2004, Montana voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Such bans have fallen around the country since the Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Republican Rep. Steve Daines, who was elected to the U.S. Senate earlier this month, was the sole member of the state’s congressional delegation to express disappointment in the ruling, saying an “unelected federal judge” had ignored Montanans’ wishes.