Busy day for local recorder as same-sex couples apply for licenses
Heather “Heath” Davis glanced around a nearly empty Dubuque Street, a manila envelope in her hand becoming soggy from the rain. A train sat in front of her, the Johnson County Administration Building on the other side.
More than 40 same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses there Monday. Three weeks after the Iowa Supreme Court ruled a ban on such unions unconstitutional, the Recorder’s Office accepted the first batch of applications.
Davis’ envelope held her marriage documents. In a flash, the compact woman scooted beneath one of the tankers and disappeared down the street. Seconds later, the train began to move.
The recorder’s office opened at 8 a.m., but the parking lot was the site of a merry gathering an hour earlier.
“It was like a tailgate with lesbians, babies, and muffins,” said Bridget Malone, a co-head of Connections, a local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organization.
Malone was stationed outside the building, simultaneously congratulating, handing out bouquets, asking for photos, and passing out brochures about Connections. Several couples looked slightly bewildered at first, surprised by the whirlwind of hospitality.
“Some of them snuck out the back,” Malone trilled, unbothered.
Davis didn’t stay to chat after handing in her paperwork.
“I had been standing in front of the train since 10 a.m.,” said the UI graduate student in health informatics. “I was on break from work.”
Some couples pondered a new concept of time.
Of the 42 same-sex applications filed in Johnson County on Monday, only three pairs asked a district judge to waive the three-day waiting period. Arguably the most elderly applicants were born in 1931 and 1944. They have been together for 36 years. Three days meant nothing, they said.
It’s different for the younger generation.
Matt Fender, 23, who works for Lambda Legal, hopes the possibility of the legislative branch eventually reversing the April 3 ruling will not rush couples into marriage.
The Iowa State University graduate nurses the “impossible” dream of becoming an attorney for Lambda Legal, which represented the six couples who took gay marriage to the Iowa Supreme Court.
“Everyone wants to work on cutting-edge civil-rights cases,” he said.
After the initial flux, Johnson County Recorder Kim Painter said she expects 20 to 30 gay couples each day. In addition, a University of California-Los Angeles study estimated 55,000 couples will flock to the state to get married within the next three years.
The first such pair in Johnson County had traveled from Illinois. Tuesday could bring a Missouri man who plans to bus 14 couples north later this week. He will pick up the applications ahead of time, Painter said.
By 5 p.m., Painter and the office workers filed down the stairs and into a cold drizzle. Fender packed up the last six carnations and a handful of fliers, which announced a gathering at the home of a local church leader.
The host was the Rev. John Harper, a deacon at New Song Episcopal Church in Coralville. Church authorities hinted at possible suspension for those who held ceremonies for gay couples.
Harper would not say whether he planned to defy his superiors.
“The church has upheld the noble tradition of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ” he said wryly as the guests nibbled on rolled meats and sipped wine.
“You’ve caught everyone at a once-in-a-lifetime high,” he said later.
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