LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Unable to obtain a marriage license earlier in the week, Tony Hopson and Gary Blonsky weren’t going to let the opportunity pass by again after gay marriages resumed Thursday in Little Rock.
After a judge declared the state’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional last week, Pulaski County officials issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples for three days this week, but stopped doing so Thursday morning after the state Supreme Court noted in an order Wednesday that a law still on the books prohibited clerks from handing them out.
Blonsky, 61, had been out of town tending to his mother and missed the chance to marry Hopson. When Circuit Judge Chris Piazza cleared the way for gay marriages to resume Thursday, issuing a new order, they had an opportunity anew.
“We thought we better run down here before they put a stay in place,” Blonsky said. “After 35 years for me, I’m glad the state of Arkansas has chosen to recognize the value of humanity and to reject discrimination.”
One benefit of the delay is that there was no line.
The pair had been together for 35 years but were engaged for only 20 minutes - the time it took to travel from their home in North Little Rock to the courthouse south of the Arkansas River. After a brief wedding, they took a selfie while the officiant signed their marriage certificate.
Blonsky said he didn’t think gay marriages would occur in Arkansas in his lifetime - but said the couple wasn’t interested in leaving Arkansas to obtain a license.
And, now that they have one, they aren’t worried about it being voided later.
“It just is what it is,” he said.
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