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- Same-sex marriage licenses issued across several counties; county clerk won't say if Juab was one of them
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
As of close of business Thursday, December 26, more than 1,225 marriage licenses had been issued in Utah since last Friday, December 20.
Of those, at least 74 percent, or 905 licenses, were issued to gay and lesbian couples.
Juab County, from opening of the county clerk's office Monday at 8 a.m. through close of the office on Thursday at 5 p.m. issued a total of only three marriage licenses.
"I don't know how all of the clerks in the state are releasing numbers for non-traditional wedding licenses," said Pat Ingram, Juab County clerk/auditor. "That is private information."
She declined to say if any of the three licenses issued were for same-sex couples or not and said that her office would continue to treat all licenses issued as private information.
"We did not have the press present that they did in some counties, like Salt Lake," she said.
Therefore there was no one on hand to snap photos.
The office had received a great deal of attention, however. Many calls had been received questioning what the county was going to do about issuing marriage licenses to non-traditional couples.
Some of the calls were from those wondering if Juab County was receiving the overflow from Utah County since they held out a bit longer than did Juab County.
Ingram said her office had certainly not been rushed with three marriage licenses all week.
"Our office will close tonight and will not be open again until Monday," said Ingram.
The Salt Lake Tribune, in an article about the same-sex licenses, broke down the numbers by county. Summit County, home of Park City, has issued 27 licenses to gay couples.
Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties were issuing the largest number of same sex marriage licenses, with Weber issuing them at 18 times the usual rate.
Utah still is planning to request that the U.S. Supreme Court step in and put a halt to same-sex marriages while Utah appeals the decision, by Judge Robert J. Shelby of the United States District Court, on December 20, to overturn the ban of same-sex marriage.
The first appeal would be heard by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court has already refused to put a hold on the law in the meantime.
There were 320 licenses issued to heterosexual couples in the past week.
Salt Lake County handed out the most marriage licenses this week, 705 total. Of that number, 655 were issued to same-sex couples. On Monday, 353 licenses were issued.
Davis County issued the second-largest number of marriage licenses in the state this week with 150 total licenses. Davis was the only county, in addition to Juab, that didn't specify how many of those licenses went to same-sex couples.
"We're not treating non-traditional licenses any differently than we treat traditional licenses," said Ingram. "We enter their names into the computer."
The smallest counties, in the rural parts of the state, rarely issue more than a few licenses most months.
Piute County has not been issuing marriage licenses at all because their county clerk is out of the office on vacation. They are not the last county to hold out on issuing same-sex licenses; they have not been asked to issue any.
A temporary clerk can help anyone needing a license. The regular clerk will be back next week.
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