County clerks in small-town Texas struggle with same-sex marriage ruling

When she opened her office Tuesday, Kimble County Clerk Haydee Torres faced a dilemma: how to respond to the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling?

“I’ve been praying a lot about it for myself, just asking God to reveal to me,” said Torres, 59. “You weigh it: Are you going to be afraid of getting sued, or are you more fearful of God?”

Across the country, officials responsible for issuing same-sex marriage licenses and officiating weddings were wrestling with similar legal and moral dilemmas.

In Louisiana, where same-sex licenses were being issued this week after delays Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other gay rights advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging an executive order by Gov. Bobby Jindal earlier this year that protects same-sex marriage opponents.

In Mississippi, some counties began issuing same-sex marriage licenses Tuesday only after the attorney general on Monday said they could be sued.

In Texas, some clerks who said they have religious objections and would not personally issue licenses — including Katie Long in Hood County — indicated that staffers in their offices who don’t object will now begin to issue them.

Some Texas clerks initially balked on procedural grounds, insisting their marriage license forms had not been updated for same-sex couples. Then over the weekend, the Department of State Health Services’ vital statistics unit issued revised new forms that replaced “male” and “female” with “applicant 1 and 2,” removing the procedural excuse for delays.

In San Saba County, about 100 miles northwest of Austin, clerk staffers had told local television station KXAN that they “did not have the proper forms and documentation for marriage licenses for same-sex couples and were unable to find them.”

Kay Arnold, a local resident unaffiliated with advocacy groups, told KXAN that when she contacted the clerk’s office Monday, staff “told me, flat out, they were not issuing licenses based on their religious beliefs.”

Jason White and fiance Jonathan Means, both of Austin, were driving to San Saba, the county seat, to apply for a license Tuesday, according to Matt Thorn, interim executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based military gay advocacy group OutServe-SLDN.

White, who owns the Brass House restaurant and bar in Austin, where Means is the business manager, is a 10-year, six-combat tour Marine who was awarded the Bronze Star and two additional medals in Afghanistan and Iraq, Thorn said.

After the couple got engaged Monday, White sent out a photo and a note: “He said yes!! Only took two years. I can’t stop crying!! He is 8th generation of San Saba so we will head there Tuesday!!!”

Ahead of their arrival at the clerk’s office, Thorn sent a letter to San Saba County Clerk Kim Wells, a Republican.

“We strongly request that you follow the ruling of the Supreme Court and issue Jason and Jonathan their marriage license,” he wrote, adding, “Jason has given this country his service, risked his life and took an oath to uphold our fundamental beliefs as a nation. He and his fiance deserve the respect and dignity of being able to publicly pronounce their love to one another through marriage and should not be discriminated against because you are choosing to ignore the oath in which you took and the law.”

San Saba County Attorney Randall Robinson said officials did not plan to oppose same-sex marriage licensing on religious or other grounds.

He said officials had seen the opinion issued over the weekend by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which was seconded by a state directive from Republican Gov. and former Attorney General Greg Abbott, but they were seeking “more of a procedural direction.”

“Our clerk will be issuing any license that is requested,” Robinson said, adding, “It’s just a transition period. … We’re just a small county waiting for some direction from our state.”

The Kimble County seat is in Junction, about 115 miles northwest of San Antonio, also a rural area. While clerks in the state’s 15 most populous counties were issuing same-sex marriage licenses, including San Antonio’s Bexar County, a few like Torres have resisted.

They cite their religious beliefs and the nonbinding legal opinions from Paxton and Abbott.

First thing Tuesday, Torres called the Kimble County attorney. Then she waited, unsure what she would do if a same-sex couple walked in and requested a license.

“A decision hasn’t been made yet. I haven’t had anybody come in yet. I have an employee who is willing, and one who is not. I read the attorney general’s opinion, which is pretty wishy-washy,” Torres said.

Paxton wrote that county officials have a right to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on First Amendment religious liberty protections at the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts.

“County clerks and their employees retain religious freedoms that may allow accommodation of their religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses,” he wrote, but warned that they may be sued. “The strength of any such claim depends on the particular facts of each case,” he added.

‘Religiously opposed’

Torres, a Republican, has been county clerk since 2003. She’s Baptist, and when it comes to same-sex marriage, said: “I am religiously opposed to it.”

She told her pastor about the Supreme Court ruling but didn’t get a chance to ask his advice. A son of one of her deputy clerks is a minister and has sent the clerks some scripture about the issue, she said.

“In the end, a sin is a sin. But you still have to love the sinner. We all sin,” Torres said.

She went online to see what other clerks were doing. Clerks have been issuing licenses to same-sex couples in all the big cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

But clerks in more rural, Baptist areas have refused or delayed.

“There’s been a lot of chatter. … I’m not going to say it’s not going to happen here, but we’re not going to have them beating down the door,” Torres said.

The Liberty Institute, a conservative legal advocacy group based in the Dallas area, was advising county officials on how to respond Tuesday, but had no information about legal battles brewing.

Chuck Smith, executive director of the Austin-based gay advocacy group Equality Texas, said he was working to educate county officials about the ruling rather than rushing to sue them.

“More than 80 percent of the population of Texas lives in places that are issuing licenses,” to same-sex couples who want to wed, he said.

“Many of these clerks are in jurisdictions where they may not have access to any significant legal resources,” Smith said. “We would be hopeful that once there’s a clear illumination of what the consequences would be, that clerks would understand their obligations.”

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 6:17 PM with the headline "County clerks in small-town Texas struggle with same-sex marriage ruling."