Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

For reunited same-sex couple, a second waiting game begins

Gay couples hoping to marry in Las Vegas experience ‘roller coaster ride’

Same-Sex Couples Wait on Marriage Licenses

L.E. Baskow

Georgia Covey and partner Anna Singson wait in line at Clark County Marriage License Bureau on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. They waited for several hours to see if they could obtain a same-sex marriage license.

Same-Sex Couples Wait on Marriage Licenses

Morgan Floyd is consoled by David Parry as same-sex couples wait for hours hoping to get licenses from the Marriage Bureau only to leave disappointed on Wednesday, October 8, 2014. . Launch slideshow »

Celebration at The Center

Sherwood Howard and State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, kiss after Atkinson publicly proposed to Howard during a celebration at The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (The Center) Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. People gathered to celebrate a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned Nevada's prohibition on gay marriage. Launch slideshow »

Anna Singson and Georgia Covey once waited 25 years to be together.

They liked each other as teenagers but lost touch after graduating Rancho and Las Vegas high schools, embarking on separate lives and kindling new romances until a serendipitous reunion last year at a Filipino food market on Maryland Parkway.

"I gave her a hug and never let go," Covey said, reminiscing as they stood in line at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau Wednesday afternoon. "I've loved her since I was 16."

Now openly gay, engaged, and in their 40s, they're in limbo again. Covey and Singson had planned a surprise wedding after same-sex marriage was suddenly legalized in Nevada late Tuesday. But a flurry of legal wrangling has since spread confusion and uncertainty over whether gay couples can wed, forcing Covey and Singson to put off their plans.

"We've waited this long," Covey said. "We'll keep waiting."

An unexpected federal appeals court ruling upheld gay marriage in Nevada and Idaho Tuesday afternoon, striking down bans in both states.

Local gay rights advocates rejoiced, swiftly assembling a celebration in downtown Las Vegas that drew more than 200. The news came a day after another surprise decision from the nation's top court to reject appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans. That decision cleared the way for a broad expansion of gay marriage in the country.

Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto issued a joint statement Tuesday night ​saying they would not fight the 9th Circuit Court's decision, noting that same sex marriage was now law in Nevada. In the so-called Marriage Capital of the World, county employees were prepared to handle 300 to 400 same-sex wedding applications as soon as Wednesday while chapels had photographers ready to capture two brides in white dresses.

But before any couples could marry, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a ruling that seemed to block gay marriage in both states with a temporary delay. Hours later, a new memo from the Supreme Court clarified the decision, saying it only applied to Idaho because officials there challenged the 9th Circuit's decision but those in Nevada did not.

The clarification prompted six gay couples to trickle into the town's marriage license bureau about 1:30 p.m.

"I'm nervous. This is my first marriage," said Jefferson Ruck, 61. "We thought we were going to have to wait longer, but here we are. I'm shaking."

Ruck's hopes were dashed when Clark County Clerk Diana Alba said at a late afternoon news conference that she would not issue any gay marriage licenses for the time being. A group fighting to withhold the state's gay marriage ban had filed a request for Kennedy to reinstate the temporary block.

Alba said the couples who waited in line today have been given passes so they may skip lines if gay marriage is later upheld.

"They waited patiently," Alba said, calling the series of court decisions "a real roller coaster" for the couples. "It's the least we could do for them."

As the time passed at the marriage license bureau Wednesday afternoon, the couples' excitement turned to anxiety.

They went hours without an update from county officials, who were busy consulting with lawyers and deciphering legalese. The reporters that surrounded them caused such a commotion that the gay couples were removed from the line to make way for others filling out paperwork that afternoon.

Straight couples, meanwhile, breezed past to complete their own marriage applications. They didn't have to wait.

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