Same-sex name changes allowed in Oklahoma; Kansas hit or miss

All Oklahoma married couples now allowed license name change

by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief

Some of the legally married members of Oklahoma’s LGBT community got a rude awakening on Monday. Despite the Supreme Court refusing to hear the states cases on marriage equality, tag agencies across the state were not recognizing legal marriage licenses.

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS), the country's highest judicial tribunal, is responsible for setting the "law of the land" in cases like this.

The SCOTUS ruling made not only Oklahoma marriage licenses valid, it made any license obtained in a state where marriage equality is the law valid in Oklahoma.

“On October 6, 2014, the US Supreme Court declined to review an order from the Tenth Circuit, effectively striking the state's ban on same-sex marriage,” said Captain George Brown, Oklahoma Department of Safety, in a statement released to The Gayly. “Within two days of the Court's decision, the Department promulgated and issued guidance to its entire staff of driver license services employees and to 274 independently-owned and operated tag agencies across the state.”

One year ago, The Gayly broke a story about Sara Doolin-Maib, a young woman who was denied a name change on her license when she disclosed to the Red Cap Tag Agency that she had married a woman (www.gayly.com/cart/checkout). Sara and her wife, Jennifer, were legally married in the state of Iowa however, at that time, the state Constitutional laws in Oklahoma did not recognize same-sex marriages.

Prior to the statement from Brown, Doolin-Maib said, “Now their excuse is that the state has stuff it needs to work out before they can comply which is literally not true and they are violating peoples’ rights.” 

Captain Brown concluded by saying, “As of today, same-sex couples in Oklahoma may now use a marriage certificate issued either in Oklahoma or from another state, for purposes of changing their name on an Oklahoma-issued driver license or identification card.”

However, across the state of Kansas, the court clerks seem to be confused, according to Tom Witt, Executive Director of Equality Kansas.

“Some counties are taking completed applications (Cowley, Wyandotte), some are taking the applications and immediately denying them (Reno), and some are refusing to accept applications at all (Sedgwick),” said Tom Witt, Executive Director of Equality Kansas. “There are a lot of moving pieces, and there's still quite a bit of confusion over what to do next.”

Published 10/8/2014 @ 6:10 pm