Same-sex marriage licenses issued locally

Two Montegut women are the first same-sex couple in Terrebonne Parish to be issued a marriage license Monday, as bars to such marriages began to fall parish by parish throughout Louisiana due to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision issued last week.

Rebecca Graham and Kada Howard said they took the giant step after six years of living together; Graham is a phlebotomist at Terrebonne General Medical Center and Howard a helicopter landing officer at the Houma-Terrebonne airport.

Clerk of Court Theresa Robichaux announced Monday morning that her office would begin issuing licenses Monday, as did Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court Vernon Rodrigue.

“Kada called me at work Friday and I didn’t’ know what was going on, why people were asking me ‘when’s the party.’” Graham said, explaining what occurred the day of the Supreme Court decision. “I was wondering why people were asking when’s the party, and then I realized what was going on. We were going to wait a year but decided why not, and went ahead.”

Associate Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 5-4 majority in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, declared that state laws against same-sex marriages violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

The case was brought by 14 couples and two men whose partners are deceased, from Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld bans on same-sex marriages in those states

The decision paved the way for Graham, Howard, and other same-sex couples to proceed with their marriage plans.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people be- come something greater than once they were,” Kennedy wrote. “As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Graham said of applying for the license ,“It feels like resolution.”

“You can exhale, it is over,” she said. “Now if something were to happen to me Kada can go to the hospital and have access. God forbid she passes away but then we would be treated as any other couple. We had legal papers drawn up but now it is like everything seems we are on a level playing field. We won’t feel like the odd man out legally. People will still look at you sideways but that is none of my concern.”

When it was issued Friday, the court’s decision drew immediate and strong response from opponents.

While campaigning for the presidency in Iowa Friday Gov. Bobby Jindal lashed out at the ncourt, branding the majority “completely out of control, making laws on their own.”

“If we want to save money let’s just get rid of the court,” said Jindal, branding it “an opinion poll instead of a judicial body.”

Clerks of court initially took a cautious approach, following the advice of the Louisiana Clerk of Courts Association to wait until a 25-day period for filing of re-hearing petitions by parties in the case before the Supreme Court, but backed off that advice Monday.

The first such license in the state was issued in Jefferson Parish Monday morning. “I would have been fine with issuing licenses Friday if we were told by the Clerk’s Association that it was OK to do so then,” said Terrebonne’s Robichaux. “It is the law so we will have to uphold the law.”

Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court Vernon Rodrigue said his office was ready to issue licenses Monday afternoon.

“I’m OK with it,” Rodrigue said.

From left, Kada Howard and Rebecca Graham pose beside Terrebonne Parish Clerk of Court Theresa Robichaux with their newly-issued marriage license Monday.

COURTESY