First same-sex couple applies for a marriage license in Greene County
Angie Brayfield and Kresta Stewart today became the first same-sex couple to apply for a marriage license in Greene County.
About three hours after the Greene County Recorder announced she would issue licenses, and six hours after the Supreme Court gave that authority, Brayfield and Stewart arrived.
"As soon as we saw the news she was like, 'Get up, we're going right now,'" Brayfield said of Stewart.
Stewart said she "freaked out on Facebook," showered, dressed and jumped out the door.
"She was excited," Brayfield said. "Pumped and ready to go."
The couple said the had planned to have a wedding in St. Louis.
Brayfield said they were always determined to get married in Missouri. They didn't want to travel out of state for a marriage.
But Brayfield was skeptical it would ever happen. Stewart was the optimistic one.
"I did not (think gay marriage would be legal). I honestly did not," Brayfield said. "But she was saying two days ago, 'It's going to happen.'"
They were greeted by Hannah Jones, a local baker who was ready with desserts for couples seeking licenses.
"I just wanted to be here to celebrate and give them tasty things," Jones said.
Jones brought different flavored meringues.
"We make them for a lot of weddings, so why not bring them to celebrate marriage," she said. "Our bakery loves everyone, and we believe everyone should be well-fed and well-included."
Jones had been waiting for couples to arrive and was surprised there wasn't a line. Brayfield and Stewart also expected more people.
"We thought there'd be a line out the door," Brayfield said. "I figured there'd be tons of people here."
Brayfield said she thinks the crowds will eventually come to celebrate the "perfect" day.
"It's been a long time coming for a lot of people," she said. "I think it should be equal for everybody."
The Recorder of Deeds' office closed at 4:30 p.m. Friday and reopens Monday at 8 a.m. Brayfield and Stewart were the only same-sex couple that applied for a marriage license in Greene County on Friday.
The Supreme Court declared Friday that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the United States, but action was delayed locally — until about noon.
Gay and lesbian couples already can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The court's 5-4 ruling means the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage.
The outcome is the culmination of two decades of Supreme Court litigation over marriage, and gay rights generally.
Locally, Greene County Recorder Cheryl Dawson-Spaulding decided Friday morning not to issue licenses until she received the go-ahead from the Recorders' Association, she said. She announced around noon that she had received the OK.
Dawson said she waited because she made an agreement with other counties to do so.
She was surprised Friday morning to hear other counties were already issuing licenses.
"Really?" she said. "I thought we had agreed to wait."
She said they had planned to wait for the official statement from the Recorders' Association so there wasn't a situation in which different counties were taking different actions.
In a statement Friday morning praising the ruling, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he would work to make sure licenses were issued.
"In the coming days, I will be taking all necessary and appropriate actions to ensure this decision is implemented throughout the state of Missouri."
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, just as he did in the court's previous three major gay rights cases dating back to 1996. It came on the anniversary of two of those earlier decisions.
"No union is more profound than marriage," Kennedy wrote, joined by the court's four more liberal justices.
The ruling will not take effect immediately because the court gives the losing side roughly three weeks to ask for reconsideration. But some state officials and county clerks decided there is little risk in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.