Same-sex marriage certificates being issued

The Dubois County Clerk’s office will issue same-sex couples marriage licenses beginning today.

According to Clerk Bridgette Jarboe, county attorney Art Nordhoff gave the clerk approval to proceed with issuing the licenses.

At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Office of the Attorney General also gave the go-ahead for counties to begin issuing the same-sex marriage certificates.

“We can’t go by what we hear in the media,” Jarboe explained today. “We have to abide by the direction of the state or the counsel of our county appointed attorney based on his interpretation of the court decisions.”

Although the clerk’s office received approval from the attorney, Jarboe still has reservations about how to issue the licenses.

The state marriage certificate system administered by the Indiana State Health Department has not updated the computer program that administers the marriage certificates. The current system, called Incite, is operated through the state health department and currently labels the applicants as Bride and Groom.

Jarboe’s office takes applications and administers the licenses daily. After the information is entered into the digital form, the official document is printed out and notarized by the clerk. After it has been notarized, no changes can be made to the license.

It could be seen as a less than perfect certificate for such a special time for the couple being married.

“These certificates will have to be whited-out if the couple prefers different titles,” Jarboe explained. “For me personally, I don’t want white-out on my marriage license.”

The state’s system has an updated form pending release based on the court’s decision. The new digital form most likely uses the terms Applicant One and Applicant Two, according to Jarboe.

The Office of Attorney General notified clerks across the state that they had just received the official mandate from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals lifting the injunction for a stay after the court ruled Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

The attorney general’s office requested a stay while it appealed the court’s decision to the Supreme Court.  Yesterday, the court declined to hear the appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

According to the attorney general, the Indiana State Department of Health will update the electronic license applications soon.

For couples wishing to be married by the clerk’s office, those ceremonies must be scheduled two weeks in advance. This has been the policy at the clerk’s office for all couples.