Same sex marriage recognized
During August and September of 2013, eight New Mexico counties began issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples, taking advantage of the state’s gender-neutral legal language. Over the course of two weeks, eight New Mexico counties extended marriage equality to same sex couples, including Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Taos, Doña Ana, San Miguel, Los Alamos, Grant, and Valencia counties. During this time legal recognition for such weddings were left to the discretion of county agencies, and on December 19, 2013, the state’s Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in favor of same sex marriage.
In 2004, a Sandoval county clerk began issuing licenses to same-sex couples. However, the state’s current Attorney General soon declared these marriages invalid. After this time, county clerks across the state agreed not to issue further licenses.
During the next several years, LGBT rights advocates such as Equality for New Mexico, The ACLU of New Mexico, and Just New Mexico worked to enact new legislation approving the freedom to marry for all couples. In 2007 the state introduced both a marriage and a domestic partnership bill. While the marriage bill was unsuccessful, the domestic partnership bill managed to pass the House, as well as two Senate Committees before the end of the legislative session. These bills advocating New Mexico Gay marriage were reintroduced in 2008 and 2010.
Represented by the ACLU, two couples filed a joint lawsuit in Albuquerque’s district court on March 21, 2013, appealing a Bernalillo County clerk’s refusal to issue marriage licenses. This suit came just two days after Santa Fe Councilor Patti Bushee and Mayor David Cross announced that they would pursue a resolution to ratify same sex marriage, encouraging county clerks to resume issuing licenses.
Polling data shows that 51% of voters support the freedom to marry, including a majority of Independents (59%), Anglo men (54%), Catholics (54%), and Hispanics who regularly attend church (53%). The Williams Institute reports that the 2010 U.S. Census found 5,825 same-sex couples residing in the state, or about 7.4 per 1,000 households.
