Same-Sex Couples Issued 3 Out Of Every 4 Marriage Licenses In Urban Minnesota

Same-sex couples during the month of August were issued three out of every four marriage licenses in Minnesota‘s most populated, urban areas. Overall, same-sex couples took home 1640 marriage licenses – one out of every three issued –across the entire state. After Minnesota’s Democratic governor Mark Dayton signed a same-sex marriage bill into law in May, couples were allowed to begin applying for licenses and marrying August 1.

The Associated Press just published the results of a county by county study they performed, and learned that demand for marriage licenses by same-sex couples “was heaviest in the metro area, with three of every four licenses for gay marriages issued in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which make up about 32 percent of Minnesota’s population.” Those two areas border Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s district.

“This is the product of people who were living in the legal wilderness for so long, suddenly no longer being told their relationships are substandard,” Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis and a sponsor of the bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mark Dayton in May, told the AP. “There’s an excitement out there right now. I’ve been going to so many weddings lately, it’s like I’m two years out of college again.”

 

Image: One of the first same-sex weddings in Minnesota. Photo from Sen. Scott Dibble, via Twitter.