By Moses Leos III
Three days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage, Hays County now joins Williamson, Travis and Bexar Counties in issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Hays County Clerk Liz Gonzalez announced Monday that her office is issuing marriage applications and licenses to anyone who applies, including same-sex applicants.
While the county is still awaiting gender-neutral documents, Hays County spokeswoman Laureen Chernow said same-sex couples can apply for a marriage license.
She said officials have manually made adjustments by hand for same-sex marriage applicants to make documents more gender neutral.
She said the County Clerk is awaiting a software change that will make all documents gender neutral. Chernow said the software change has occurred for marriage licenses, but the county is awaiting the changeover for applications.
“Some people may not care if there’s something scratched out on the document, but some may want a clean copy,” she said.
This comes after Hays County held off on issuing same-sex marriage applications Friday following the 5-4 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Hays County officials waited to obtain gender-neutral documents prior to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
This was after county officials consulted their General Counsel, as is standard procedure with any new law to the county, according to Chernow. She said the General Counsel was “clear on what needed to happen” late in the day Friday.
“Sometimes there are things within a new law that need to called out to elected officials,” Chernow said. “That’s our General Counsel’s job to do that. He pulled over on his vacation and read it.”
According to a Hays County release, Gonzalez said that the county is awaiting gender-neutral documents, “so some persons may prefer to wait until those forms are fully updated.”
“We are in contact with our vendor to see when we can get the new forms that are gender neutral and we will announce when those are available.” Gonzalez said in a statement.
The Clerk’s Office is taking contact information for those who want to be notified when the new applications and licenses are available.
Chernow went on to say that anyone who does wish to obtain a “clean copy” might want to wait a “day or two.” She hoped the changeover wouldn’t take “more than a day.”
For anyone considering marriage in Hays County, the Gonzalez recommends applicants be in the office no later than 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and no later than 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the San Marcos Office. The Kyle office closes at 4:30 p.m. every day.
According to the release, the process should take about 15 minutes if applicants have all of the proper information.
What is required by the state of Texas to obtain a marriage license:
1. Both applicants must be 18 or older
2. Both applicants must be present
3. Both have to present a state issued ID, DL, Birth Certificate or other approved identification
4. Both need to know Social Security Number - we don’t need to see their card
5. There’s a 72-hour waiting period to marry unless they are active military or have obtained a waiver from either a County Court at Law or District Judge in Texas
6. The fee is $82 cash or credit card (3% service charge on credit card transactions) - no checks
7. The Marriage License is good for 90 days – the applicants must get married within that time frame.
