Granbury men get Hood County’s first same-sex marriage license

Two Granbury men obtained a marriage license from the Hood County Clerk’s office Monday afternoon, a few hours after filing suit against County Clerk Katie Lang in federal court in Fort Worth.

Attorneys representing Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton, who said they have been together for 27 years, said the couple will move forward with the suit until the county clerk’s office agrees to issue marriage licenses to all couples.

“Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton are delighted that they finally have been issued a marriage license and can get married in their home county,” attorneys Jan Soifer and Austin Kaplan said in a statement. “It’s a shame that they needed to hire lawyers and file a lawsuit to make that happen.”

The Hood County Clerk’s office would not say whether it will issue other same-sex marriage licenses and referred questions regarding the licenses to Lang’s personal attorneys at the Liberty Institute, which specializes in religious freedom litigation.

Jeremy Dys, senior counsel at the Liberty Institute, said the clerk’s office was unable to issue the license on Thursday “because of software issues” and “lack of guidance” from the county attorney on using existing forms.

“The Clerk’s office was unable to issue a license at close of business on Thursday, even though everyone left with the understanding that one would be immediately available on the next business day,” Dys said.

“The office was closed Friday. This morning, as of about 8:00 a.m., there is a marriage license waiting for the couple that has, for some reason, sued Hood County.”

In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth, Cato and Stapleton said the court that Lang had violated the couple’s constitutional rights by refusing to issue them a marriage license despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on June 26 that same-sex marriages are protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The high court said states must license a marriage between two people of the same sex, overriding Texas’ longstanding ban on same-sex marriage.

Citing her religious beliefs, Lang initially said her office would not grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She also pointed to an opinion written by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in which he stated that county clerks in Texas who have religious objections to same-sex marriage can opt out of issuing such licenses — though he warned them they could face litigation.

Lang then said she would “personally refrain” from issuing them but that other members of her staff would grant the licenses once “the appropriate forms have been printed and supplied to my office.”

Cato and Stapleton’s first attempt to obtain a marriage license was on June 29, according to the complaint. After they were unsuccessful, Austin attorneys Jan Soifer and Austin Kaplan sent a letter to Lang on Thursday demanding that her office issue the couple a marriage license by the end of the business day or risk being sued in federal court Monday morning.

By Thursday afternoon, the couple was still unable to obtain a marriage license.

The gay couple’s attorneys contend that the marriage license form is gender neutral because it includes two blanks for the names of the applicants — one of which is preceded by “Mr.” and the other with the letter “M.”

“It is clear that the reason provided by Clerk Lang is simply a pretext for her to violate Jim and Joe’s constitutional right to marriage and to delay issuing a license,” the attorneys wrote in their complaint.

Lang’s office eventually issued the couple a marriage license “in handwriting on the existing license form, which proves that County Clerk Lang easily could have complied with the law without waiting ten days,” the couple’s attorneys said.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Granbury men get Hood County’s first same-sex marriage license."