CHICAGO — The Cook County clerk’s office is reporting more than 6,500 same-sex couples married in Illinois’ most populous county over the first year it issued licenses.
Cook County Clerk David Orr released a report with that and other statistics on the one-year anniversary since his office began issuing licenses to gay couples.
By comparison, around 32,000 marriage licenses are issued by the county to opposite-sex couples each year.
In a Wednesday statement, Orr called the legalization of same-sex marriage historic and says the “basic right” was “denied to so many for too long.”
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On Feb. 21, 2014, a federal judge cleared the way for Orr to issue licenses three months before gay marriage took effect throughout Illinois.
The report says spouses in same-sex marriages have ranged from age 17 to 93.
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