Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin get an Oklahoma marriage license

Oklahoma City (AP) — A Tulsa couple who successfully challenged Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage got their license Monday and looked forward to a wedding, as court clerks in the state's two largest counties began issuing the paperwork to same-sex couples.

Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, the lead plaintiffs against Oklahoma's constitutional ban on gay marriage, walked to the second floor of the Tulsa County courthouse holding hands and smiling broadly. That came just a few hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the state's appeal in the case, in which a federal appeals court ruling earlier this year overturned the ban.

"This is the dream day; it's a day we've been looking forward to," Baldwin said at the Tulsa County Court Clerk's Office as the deputy clerk was writing up the pair's license paperwork. "We're looking forward to no longer being second-class citizens."

The Supreme Court's decision Monday effectively means gay marriage is now legal in 30 states. But it rankled some in the conservative state, where 76 percent of voters had backed the ban in 2004. Republican Gov. Mary Fallin said the court's inaction was effectively an attack on states' rights.

One same-sex couple who had beaten Bishop and Baldwin to the courthouse decided to wait to get their license until the women got theirs. It took about 10 minutes for the paperwork to be signed, and the women then turned around and held the license up high as bystanders and supporters clapped and cheered. Bishop and Baldwin were hoping to have a wedding ceremony later Monday at the courthouse complex downtown.

The couple who beat Bishop and Baldwin to the courthouse Monday went next.

Bill Owens had tears in his eyes as he watched the clerk sign off on Bishop and Baldwin's paperwork and got emotional again when it came time for the clerk to process the documents for his license with Josh McCormick. Owens said he thought this day would come, but that it would take at least a decade to 20 years more in Oklahoma.

"I can say I have a husband," Owens said.

In Oklahoma County, the state's largest, Court Clerk Tim Rhodes said he instructed his employees to begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples.

"It's busy out there right now," Rhodes said. "There are folks out in the hallway."

In some of Oklahoma's 77 counties, though, clerks said they were waiting for advice from the local district attorney. Cleveland County Court Clerk Rhonda Hall said her office received several phone calls and had some couples apply for a marriage license.

"We just asked them to check back with us," Hall said.

U.S. Rep. James Lankford, Oklahoma's Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, accused the U.S. Supreme Court of "judicial gymnastics."

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Sean Murphy and Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press. Associated Press reporter Tim Talley contributed to this report. Juozapavicius reported from Tulsa.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Gayly – October 6, 2014 @ 2:40pm