Plaintiffs challenging Alaska's same-sex marriage legally wed after week of legal back and forth

[Blue_In_AK]

Some of the comments are really funny.

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Snow, slush, a state holiday and complex legal maneuvering from the court system weren’t enough to stop Courtney Lamb and Stephanie Pearson from getting married.

The two wed in an impromptu ceremony outside of the Midtown Anchorage Frontier Building Monday, a mere half-hour after picking up their marriage license from the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

The day had been a week in the making. Pearson and Lamb were one of five couples who challenged Alaska’s same-sex marriage ban in May, arguing that the amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman denied them equal protection and due process rights. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess overturned the ban on those points last Sunday and couples began applying for licenses Monday. But between the three-day waiting period when licenses were applied for and when they were actually issued, couples found themselves in the middle of legal ping-pong as the state of Alaska fought the judge’s order.

Friday, that legal back and forth ceased with the U.S. Supreme Court denying a further appeal in Hamby v. Parnell, the lawsuit overturning the ban. While a challenge at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is still pending, marriages were allowed to finally go forward Monday.

A small crowd of media, close friends and other well-wishers joined the couple in a quick four-minute ceremony. Mad Myrna’s bartender G. Frank “Mimi” Jenkins officiated the ceremony. In his duties, he noted that even though the ceremony was the final step in legally wedding, that in itself didn’t make a marriage.

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