Wyandotte County has its first same-sex marriage license

Wyandotte County District Court today issued a same-sex marriage license.

The license was issued this afternoon, according to court administrator Bill Burns.

He said a same-sex couple came in today and asked for a marriage license, and a waiver of the three-day waiting period.

Burns said the courts are currently giving couples applications, and then the chief judge is acting on them to decide if they should wait three days or receive a waiver.

In this afternoon’s application, a waiver was approved by the chief judge, according to Burns.

After the couple gets the license, they still have to find someone to perform the ceremony, he added.

It has been a confusing time for the local courts, Burns agreed, as challenges to the Kansas same-sex marriage ban have been in several courts, including the federal and state courts. At the time this license was issued today, Burns said he had not heard the state’s high court would be taking up the case again Monday.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a stay on Kansas issuing marriage licenses. A federal district court judge has found that the Kansas ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional according to the U.S. constitution.

The Kansas attorney general’s office is still pursuing a defense of the Kansas constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. This afternoon, the Kansas Supreme Court announced it would begin deliberating at 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, on the original mandamus action that had been filed with the court on the topic of same-sex marriage licenses.