SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s third-largest county has begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the second county in the state to begin doing so this week.
Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar made the move Friday afternoon under orders from a state district judge.
The first same-sex couple to get a license in Santa Fe County was Santa Fe County Commissioner Liz Stefanics and Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico, a gay rights group. Stefanics is a former Democratic state senator from Santa Fe.
Others expected to seek a license are the two men who filed the lawsuit that resulted in the court order directing the clerk to issue licenses — Alexander Hanna and Yon Hudson.
The move comes two days after the county clerk in Dona Ana County in southern New Mexico decided on his own to being issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
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