5 gay couples denied marriage licenses

COLUMBIA - Riding a surging wave of publicity, five gay couples in South Carolina applied for marriage licenses Thursday but they were -- as expected -- denied.

It was the latest event in a gay rights movement that's forging ahead in South Carolina, despite public opposition and legislators' attempts to strengthen laws banning gay marriages.

The couples, wearing white-rose boutonnieres, some arm-in-arm, walked into a county courthouse in the heart of the Bible belt, filled out marriage license applications and then were told by a judge they would not be accepted.

"You may absolutely fill out the paperwork, we just won't be able to give you a license," said Richland County Probate Judge Amy McCulloch, who was flanked by two city police officers. "Again I'm sorry. I respect what you're trying to do and I respect your desires, but right now the law in South Carolina is we can't issue a license" to same-sex couples.

The news wasn't surprising. The couples know the law, but that doesn't mean they're happy with it.

Patricia Noble, 56, and Ruth Reedy, 45, walked into the marriage license office several minutes after some media and television cameras filed out, following the other four couples who had advertised their attempts to apply for licenses.

The women weren't there to be on television, they were there seeking a marriage license.

"It was on the news that you could come here and get a license and get married," said Noble, a registered nurse in Columbia.

Noble said she had heard legislators introduced bills this week in the South Carolina General Assembly that would prohibit the state from recognizing a same-sex marriage performed elsewhere.

But she hoped Thursday would lend a different result.

"We had planned on getting married anyway -- and we will get married anyway," said Noble, who has been with Reedy for 11 years.

The bills introduced in the legislature also would deny insurance benefits to same-sex couples who work for the state or entities of the state such as colleges and universities, counties and local municipalities.

That upsets Noble.

"The biggest thing is we have to pay double insurance," she said. "If we could combine it ... it would be less for us to come out of pocket with, but we don't have that benefit."

The issue of gay marriage was thrust into the spotlight late last year, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled it was unconstitutional to ban gay couples from marrying, a decision that was reaffirmed last week.

Lawmakers there are attempting to craft a constitutional amendment that would bar gay couples from getting married but allow civil unions. South Carolina passed a law in 1996 that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

According to the 2000 Census, there are more than 7,600 same-sex couples in South Carolina.

Don Hair, 36, and Blanchard Williams, 30, plan to get married on Valentine's Day despite not having a marriage license. The two men have been together for nine years and have invited friends and ordained clergy to their wedding Saturday.

"We're going through the process just like any straight couple would," said Williams, a computer programmer.

After being denied marriage licenses, a group of about 15 gay rights activists walked to the State House, passing out wrapped pastries along the way. Most people politely refused the "wedding cake."

Renea Eshleman, 53, watched the "wedding stroll" down Columbia's Main Street. The higher education administrator from Orangeburg said it will be interesting to see how the debate over same-sex marriages falls out, but she's against it.

"That's not the way the Lord meant it to be," she said.