Hundreds Of Same-Sex Couples Tie Knot After Wisconsin’s Ban Overruled

About 280 same-sex couples got married in Dane and Milwaukee counties during the weekend following a federal court ruling that struck down Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban.

After federal District Judge Barbara Crabb issued her ruling on Friday night, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed an emergency motion to try to stop counties from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, saying Crabb hadn’t yet officially blocked Wisconsin’s marriage ban.

Even ACLU attorney Larry Dupuis, while praising the decision by Crabb, held off on publicly recommending that same-sex couples try to immediately get married.

That did not stop people from lining up at Madison’s City-County Building to get married outside on the front steps. Tina Cady and Cody Houston each wore white wedding dresses when they got married on Saturday morning. Cady said she couldn’t believe it happened.

“People have just come down to be part of the moment who we don’t know and don’t know anyone here. It’s almost giddy, the atmosphere, for everyone,” Cady said.

Cady said they knew they wanted to get to the county clerk’s office as soon as possible when they heard about the ruling.

“We want to have a religious ceremony with our family, but in other states, it’s like somewhere usually between a day or a couple (of) days and then it gets stayed. So, we wanted to make sure we could get in while we still had the chance,” Cady said.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonnell, who made the call to start issuing marriage licenses, said he had hoped Crabb would instruct clerks on how to proceed. But McDonnell said once he read Crabb’s ruling, it was an easy call.

“She left it to us to decide, and to me, it was obvious what we should do,” McDonnell said.

Larry Dupuis said that as Van Hollen tries to overturn Crabb’s ruling, he should not try to undo the new marriages.

“I would certainly hope that would not happen,” said Dupuis. “I would hope that the AG would not be that small to try to undo something that people have done to commit.”

Late last week, a federal appeals court ruled that Utah can continue to deny many of the legal benefits of marriage to about 1,000 same-sex couples who recently wed there as Utah’s marriage law is further argued in court. Van Hollen mentioned that delay in his emergency motion for Crabb to put her ruling on hold, or conduct an emergency telephone hearing to clarify her order.

Regardless of what happens in Crabb’s courtroom, Van Hollen promised an appeal.

Correction: The original version of this story named Dane County’s clerk as Scott McDonnel. The clerk’s actual name is Scott McDonnell.