Gay Marriage in New Mexico? Could Happen

About a week before the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a pair of same-sex marriage cases this spring, Kim Kiel and her partner of nine years, Rose Griego, went to apply for a marriage license in Albuquerque. “We expected to be turned down,” says Kiel. “Still, there was this little spark of hope and we thought, what if they change their mind and say, let’s be radical?”

No such luck: Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver says she had to refuse the couple’s request because of the way New Mexico’s marriage license applications are worded, with some sections that are supposed to be filled out by a man and others by a woman. “That’s been the basis of why I and my fellow clerks have not issued them,” says Oliver, noting that she personally supports allowing gay couples to wed.