More than 300 same-sex marriage licenses issued in Michigan / LGBTQ Nation

Michigan

More than 300 same-sex marriage licenses issued in Michigan

Saturday, March 22, 2014

<span>Paul Sancya, AP</span><br>Kim Gillen, holds flowers for friends applying for a marriage license at the Oakland County Clerks office in Pontiac, Mich., Saturday, March 22, 2014.

Paul Sancya, AP
Kim Gillen, holds flowers for friends applying for a marriage license at the Oakland County Clerks office in Pontiac, Mich., Saturday, March 22, 2014. LGBTQ Nation

Paul Sancya, AP
Kim Gillen, holds flowers for friends applying for a marriage license at the Oakland County Clerks office in Pontiac, Mich., Saturday, March 22, 2014.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Clerks in four Michigan counties have issued more than 300 licenses to same-sex couples.

The first to do so Saturday was Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, who approved 57 in all.

The licenses also issued in Washtenaw, Oakland and Muskegon counties came a day after Michigan’s gay marriage ban was struck down by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman.

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A federal appeals court later Saturday suspended same-sex marriages in Michigan, at least until Wednesday.

The specter of such a stay didn’t keep Elizabeth Patten away from the Washtenaw County building in Ann Arbor during the early morning hours of Saturday. Shortly after the clerk’s doors opened, she had a license and headed downstairs where a judge married her and 28-year partner Jonnie Terry.

Patten says the experience “was really surreal.”