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Murray Couple Receives City's First Same-Sex Marriage License

Facebook/Stephen Reed

Moments after the Supreme Court decision declaring all 5o states must recognize same-sex marriage, Stephen and Richard Reed of Murray filed for their license after waiting 13 years. Nicole Erwin spoke with Stephen on the historic day. 

"We had even talked about going to a state that had already made it legal," said Stephen. "But then we decided that since we lived in Kentucky we would wait until Kentucky legalized it." 

He says he was with Richard at work when the news came down. They decided then to get their marriage license paperwork sorted out with the Calloway County Clerk's Office. 

"It was super, super easy," said Stephen. "The county clerk, Antonia Faulkner, we called her this [Friday] morning. She emailed over the paperwork that had to be filed out for a marriage license.

"Her initial concern was that in the past those forms had had 'bride and groom' on them and she thought that maybe we might be offended. We expressed to her that we would by no means be offended, but by then the state of Kentucky had already changed all the paperwork and sent them out to all the courthouses. So she emailed it over, we filled it out, scanned it, sent it back then went by to pick it up. It was all pretty much electronic, didn’t take much more than 15 minutes." 

Stephen says he doesn’t think many people in the courthouse knew that the county clerk was about to register the first same-sex marriage license. 

"There weren’t very many people there," he said. "I didn’t think that even all the employees there knew what was going on. But she was very cordial, very friendly like she always is. It was all very simple, very quiet, very quiet. There was nothing negative at all. I didn’t anticipate anything negative, really, but everything was very positive." 

Stephen says that since he and Richard have been together so long and are essentially already a married couple, he doesn't anticipate any major changes.

"Other than the fact it will be considered by the state, I don’t — We’ve always considered ourselves married, I don’t anticipate any huge changes. I hoping for a diamond on the ring this time. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Having been in a relationship for thirteen years, we own together, we own a business together, our lives are already intertwined. We had already done everything possible with our attorney to protect one another if, God forbid, something should happen. But I think it is very nice and reassuring to know that now we won’t have to worry if we did enough legal work."

Stephen says that the license now gives them 30 days to get married. 

"So I think we’re going to do something very, very, simple, very quiet, very quick and maybe have a bigger party later on this year." 

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