DC releases more details on same-sex couples and marriage licenses
‘Gay Marriage Legalized in DC; Oral Roberts Drops Dead’
courtesy of ‘Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com’
The Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs has put out a release about the imminent availability of marriage licenses for same-sex couples. The date they’ll be available continues to be projected as March 3, subject to congress’ being in session. Most of it is delightfully unsurprising: want to get married? Show up with proper identification and pay the $35. Just. Like. Everyone. Else.
*sniff* I’m misting up a little here.
The items that are different and noteworthy is that you don’t have to pay that $35 if you’re already a registered domestic partnership in the District. You’ll still have to pay the $10 for a certified copy of the certificate if you want one, but the application fee is waved. You should also look into any requirements if you’d registered a partnership in another state – the Office of GLBT says “the other state’s law may require you to dissolve it prior to marrying in the District of Columbia.” Odd and curious – anyone know specific examples of this kind of issue?
Like
Comments
3 Responses to “DC releases more details on same-sex couples and marriage licenses”
February 26th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by biggaynoticias: DC releases more details on same-sex couples and marriage licenses – We Love DC http://bit.ly/aMY9FS...
February 26th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
I shall venture a guess, and I apologize in advance that it is over-lawyered – the federal Defense of Marriage Act (1 U.S.C. § 7 & 28 U.S.C. § 1738C) permits any state to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages from another state, and provides that the federal government (including DC?) will not recognize any same-sex marriages. I suspect that the requirement of dissolving is an effort to not offend sister states, and to avoid problems of property splitting in a divorce – property splitting across state lines is very tricky.
There likely will be zero specific examples b/c the only state in which you can currently marry a same-sex spouse is Iowa.
March 10th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
[...] has been a very exciting week for same-sex couples in the District, and the Washington Post wanted to make sure to capture the joy that city residents were sharing [...]