Michigan counties begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses

Less than a day after U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman issued a 31-page ruling declaring Michigan’s gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, couples began receiving marriage licenses this morning, and East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett was at one courthouse to document the moment:

Attorney General Bill Schuette is seeking an emergency stay from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, so several county clerk offices opened today in lieu of regular Monday-Friday schedules in order to issue the same-sex marriage licenses.

“So many people have been waiting long enough,” Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum told the Detroit Free Press. “The more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed to make them wait until Monday morning.”

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