Same-sex marriage has arrived in Wyoming, the conservative western mountain state where the 1998 beating death of a gay student helped spark the movement that has culminated in a broad expansion of gay rights around America.
State lawyers filed a legal notice today morning that said they won't defend a recently overturned Wyoming law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, meaning county clerks can begin to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and the state will recognize same-sex unions performed legally elsewhere.
More than 30 states, including Alaska and Arizona, now recognize same-sex unions in changes triggered by a US Supreme Court decision Oct 6 that refused to hear appeals from states that wanted to defend gay marriage bans.
The change is particularly notable in the state where Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was robbed, tied to a fence and viciously beaten 16 years ago.
He died days after the attack on Oct 12, 1998. The slaying galvanized a nationwide push for gay rights and tough penalties for hate crimes.
A celebration of the long-sought victory, featuring what could become Wyoming's first same-sex wedding, was planned for today evening in Cheyenne.
Wyoming has joined several other politically conservative states in allowing gay marriage after a series of recent court rulings have struck down bans as unconstitutional.
Gay rights supporters have said bans on same-sex unions are violations of the US Constitution's guarantees of equal protection under the law and due process. Opponents have said the issue should be decided by states and voters, not courts.
Not many same-sex couples were expected to line up right away because Wyoming, the least populated state in the US, doesn't have a large number of same-sex couples ready to marry.
The Williams Institute, a think-tank at the UCLA school of law, released a study last month saying there were about 700 same-sex couples in Wyoming and that maybe about 200 would choose to marry within the first year of being able to do so under the changed state status.
The Laramie County Clerk's Office in Cheyenne, the state's biggest city, had just five same-sex couple applications pending.
