Two more New Mexico counties will soon offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The county clerks for San Miguel County and Valencia County New Mexico each said they plan to offer licenses to same-sex couples, according to New Mexico ABC News affiliate KOAT-TV on Tuesday.
San Miguel County Clerk Melanie Rivera has ordered gender neutral licenses and can alter the current licenses to say “spouse” rather than “male applicant” and “female applicant.”
Valencia County Clerk Peggy Carabajal said she expects to have gender neutral licenses ready on Wednesday. Like Rivera, Carabajal said she’s willing to alter the current marriage licenses.
On Monday a judge ruled that a county clerk in Bernalillo County, the state’s largest county, could issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That ruling is the second in the last week in which a judge ordered a clerk to issue marriage licenses. A week earlier the clerk for Doña Ana County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
A group of Republicans in the state legislature planned to take legal action to stop the Doña Ana County clerk but since other clerks have followed suit, the Republicans are reconsidering their options.
