Grundy County officials announced March 6 that they had issued their first license to a same-sex couple the previous week, Morris [Ill.] Daily Herald reported.
The news comes as Illinois counties begin allowing same-sex couples to obtain licenses and marry ahead of the scheduled June 1, 2014, start date for marriage equality. After a federal judge ruled Feb. 21 that the state’s gay marriage ban was unconstitutional and that marriages could begin immediately in Cook County, other counties followed suit. Champaign County began offering licenses Feb. 26 and McLean County said it would do so beginning March 24.
“If someone wanted to get a gay marriage in Grundy County and we denied them that right, there would be a lawsuit, and based on this lawsuit [in Cook], we think it’s not a battle worth fighting,” Grundy County State’s Attorney Jason Helland told Morris Daily Herald.
The first marriage license had been issued to a same-sex Grundy County couple on Feb. 27. The couple had been previously been in a civil union.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on March 4 informed Macon County Clerk Stephen Bean that, while the Cook County order did not apply to other parts of the state, the same-sex marriage ban had been found unconstitutional, which could open county clerk’s offices up to litigation if they denied couples licenses. Madigan added that her office would in that case intervene on behalf of the couples. Macon County will begin to offer marriage licenses on March 10.
Morris Daily Herald’s story is at: bit.ly/1cFunjv.