LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A couple from Texas who’s been together nearly 30 years is the first in line to obtain a same-sex marriage license in Pulaski County.
Fifty-one-year-old Shelly Butler and 48-year-old Susan Barr arrived at the courthouse at about 6:30 a.m. Monday. Both are Arkansas natives and had planned to marry this fall in New Mexico.
Another couple had waited on the courthouse steps since midnight, but Butler and Barr were allowed in first because Butler is in a wheelchair.
The two first met in 1985 at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.
Thomas Baldwin and Devin Rudeseal of Bryant are second in line. They hoped to obtain their license quickly because Rudeseal has a 10:30 a.m. final exam at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he is studying massage therapy.
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