Licenses issued in Norristown, Montgomery County, believed to be first in the state
At least five same-sex couples obtained marriage licenses today in a suburban Philadelphia county that is defying a state ban on such unions, but local court workers don't anticipate doing the same.
Alicia Terrizzi and Loreen Bloodgood, of Pottstown, were the only couple to marry right away, exchanging vows in a park before a minister and their two young sons.
“We’re not setting out to be pioneers. We don’t think our family is any different than anybody else,” said Terrizzi, a 45-year-old teacher. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
The licenses issued today in Montgomery County are believed to be the first to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania, the only northeastern state without same-sex marriages or civil unions.
“Today I feel like a full citizen,” said Marcus Saitschenko, 52, of Philadelphia, who came to the suburban courthouse with his partner of 22 years, James Goldstein. “We’re just hoping that the state will recognize it.”
A 1996 Pennsylvania law defines marriage as a civil contract in which a man and a woman take each other as husband and wife, and it says same-sex marriages, even ones entered legally elsewhere, are void in Pennsylvania.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit this month seeking to overturn the law.
The county officials and the same-sex couples who marry could find themselves in court if Republican Gov. Tom Corbett or other state officials challenge their actions. In other states with same-sex marriage bans, licenses issued by defiant local officials have been voided by courts.
Northampton County Orphans Court Deputy Clerk Melissa Binder said this afternoon she does not believe her office can issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples unless instructed to do so by Gov. Tom Corbett, the state Legislature or their solicitor. Her supervisor, Northampton County Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court Clerk Gina X. Gibbs is out of the office this week at a conference.
“In the past, we’ve been told to say, ‘Unfortunately, Pennsylvania does not recognize same-sex marriages,’” Binder said.
“We’re not changing anything with the current marriage license procedures in Lehigh County,” added Kerry Turtzo, the county’s deputy court administrator. “It is going to remain the same.”
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman, a Republican, said this evening that a same-sex marriage license wasn’t legally valid under existing Pennsylvania law but “the remedy for issuing an invalid marriage license does not include intervention by the office of the district attorney.”
“The register of wills cannot change the laws of this commonwealth by simply ignoring them,” Ferman said in a statement. “If that change comes, it will be through Pennsylvania courts or the Legislature.”
Corbett’s spokesman declined immediate comment.
The licenses were issued a day after the county’s Register of Wills, D. Bruce Hanes, said he would grant them to gay couples because he wanted to come down “on the right side of history and the law.”