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In a sunlit room at the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office, Patricia Catlett held Karen Schmiege’s hands early Tuesday morning. Poised to put a ring on Karen’s finger, she repeated the minister’s words.
“I now wed thee,” announced Catlett, and followed with an exhilarated screech. “Can I kiss the bride now?”
The attending audience laughed. The minister said it wasn’t time yet, but later that day Catlett’s wish came true.
Catlett, 61, and Schmiege, 69, were the first same-sex couple in Bernalillo County to get a marriage license. According to the County Clerk’s Office, 135 other same-sex couples followed the women’s lead that day.
Bernalillo County Second Judicial District Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage Monday afternoon. The decision, issued by county court judge Alan Malott, makes Bernalillo the third county in the state to allow same-sex marriage.
Catlett said Schmiege and she have been together for 25 years. When they met, she said, Schmiege was volunteering for a lesbian organization called Lavender Heights in New York City. On the other hand, Catlett said she had been “just another citizen, a workaholic” in Manhattan.
With two complete strangers serving as witnesses, cameras rolled while the two pronounced their vows.
Rising Sun Ministries Executive Director Vangie Chavez said it was her pleasure to officiate the wedding ceremony of Catlett and Schmiege. She also said she was excited to do a “repeat performance” throughout the day.
“I love officiating weddings,” Chavez said. “It’s to bring two people together who have shared a love and a commitment.”
The Bernalillo ruling came after Doña Ana County became the first county in New Mexico to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses last week when county clerk Lynn Ellins made the decision without being so ordered by a court.
Santa Fe County followed when a judge ordered the county clerk to begin issuing licenses Thursday. This preceded a 7-4 vote of Santa Fe’s Voters and Elections Committee not to put the gay marriage question on the ballot for the city’s 2014 general elections.
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Though she said the recent ruling was “an inclusionary move,” Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver said the decision was not unexpected. She said she is personally glad about the approval of same-sex marriage in the county.
Toulouse Oliver said she is optimistic that the ruling has arrived to stay forever in the county.
“I can’t see why it wouldn’t last,” she said. “Certainly, I’m not going to appeal it; I don’t see why the other county clerk is going to appeal it; And I don’t know who else is going to have the standing to appeal it.”
And people who are opposed to same-sex marriage should get used to it, she said.
“I understand the frustration that they might have in seeing a law that conflicts with their personal values,” she said. “But I’ve been county clerk here for six and a half years implementing a law that I didn’t believe was right. Now, I’m following the law today.
They should understand that this is the law of the land and this is how it’s going to be moving forward.”
Still, some officials in the state plan to counter the rulings, starting with Doña Ana County.
New Mexico Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, said in a press release that his legal team is pursuing loopholes in the rulings.
“Our legal team continues to review how to stop the usurping of the legislative function by some district court judges in regards to marriage in the state,” he said. “And it continues to review how to stop the lawless actions of the Doña Ana County Clerk.”
Sharer said only the state legislature, with approval from the governor, could enact laws. He said county clerks and district court judges have “to abide by them. They do not make the laws.”
Despite opposition, the same-sex marriage trend has continued across the state. As couples wedded in Albuquerque Tuesday, county clerks in San Miguel, Valencia and Taos Counties decided to start granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the county as early as 8 a.m. that morning.
UNM psychology student Chanda Shaw, who came with her partner Jessica Dunn to the Bernalillo County Clerk Office Tuesday to obtain a marriage license, said the victorious ruling can be attributed in part to activist efforts in the state.
“The efforts were phenomenal,” she said. “Not everything is seen about the hard efforts that would get laws changed in the past. It’s amazing that today is happening because of them.”
Shaw said she has been with Dunn for seven years now. Although the two held a “commitment ceremony” in 2011, they said they were still “excited” about having something tangible in their hands.
Shaw said they filed papers for their license on Monday, and the couple arrived in the County Clerk’s Office at 7:30 a.m. the following day.
Dunn said she was “bummed” that they were not the first couple to get a license, but that was just a joke.
“It doesn’t matter to us if we’re first at all,” Dunn said. “We’re just happy to be here.”
