Pa. gay couple marries as county defies state ban

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NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Five same-sex couples obtained marriage licenses Wednesday in a suburban Philadelphia county defying a state ban on such unions, but the governor's spokesman said the local officials lack the power to suspend state law.

Alicia Terrizzi and Loreen Bloodgood, of Pottstown, were the only couple to marry right away, exchanging vows in a park before a minister and their two young sons.

"We're not setting out to be pioneers. We don't think our family is any different than anybody else," said Terrizzi, a 45-year-old teacher. "We've been waiting a long time for this."

The licenses issued Wednesday in Montgomery County are believed to be the first to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania, the only northeastern state without same-sex marriages or civil unions.

A 1996 Pennsylvania law defines marriage as a civil contract in which a man and a woman take each other as husband and wife, and it says same-sex marriages, even ones entered legally elsewhere, are void in Pennsylvania.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit this month asking a federal judge to overturn the law.

Before that suit played out, officials in the affluent and increasingly Democratic county signaled this week that they would grant same-sex licenses.

They could find themselves in court nonetheless if Republican Gov. Tom Corbett or other state officials challenge their actions. In other states with same-sex marriage bans, licenses issued by defiant local officials have been voided by courts.

Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane, though, has said that she will not defend the ban, leaving Corbett's office to tackle the ACLU lawsuit.

The risk of a court fight down the road did not stop the eight women and two men who picked up marriage licenses.

"Today I feel like a full citizen," said Marcus Saitschenko, 52, of Philadelphia, who came to the suburban courthouse with his partner of 22 years, James Goldstein. "We're just hoping that the state will recognize it."

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20130724/US-Gay-Marriage-Pennsylvania/