Boulder County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court struck down Utah’s ban on gay marriage.

Two couples were married before the office closed at 4:30 p.m., but the Colorado attorney general’s office said the licenses won’t be valid.

Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall said her office would resume issuing licenses at 8 a.m. Thursday at its Boulder office, 1750 33rd St.

The clerk’s offices in Lafayette and Longmont will start issuing same-sex marriage licenses Friday.

Hall said she moved forward with the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses because the 10th Circuit, which includes Colorado, upheld “the fundamental right to marriage.”

“Couples across Colorado have been waiting a long time to have their right to marry the person they love recognized,” she said in a news release. “I want to act immediately to let them carry out that wish.”

No mention was made in the clerk’s news release about the stay the three-judge panel put on its ruling, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on the matter.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in a statement late Wednesday that the state’s constitutional prohibition on same-sex marriages remains in effect.

“Today’s decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals was stayed by the court and has not gone into effect even in Utah, let alone in Colorado,” he said. “Any marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in Colorado before a final court resolution of the issue are invalid.”

Carolyn Tyler, spokeswoman for Suthers’ office, noted that in 1975, Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex issued marriage licenses to a few gay couples.

She was told to stop after then-Colorado Attorney General J.D. MacFarlane delivered a legal opinion that such marriages were not legal.

“They are no more valid today than they were in 1975,” Tyler said. “Boulder has a history of activism on this issue.”

In an interview Wednesday evening, Hall said she consulted with the county’s legal team, which determined that the court’s stay order applied only to Utah and to the officials involved in that case.

The appeals court covers Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma, Wyoming, New Mexico and Kansas.

“We think it is both legally and morally correct,” Hall said of her decision. “Colorado’s prohibition on same-sex marriage has treated our citizens and families as second-class citizens for too long.”

Ann Gushurst, an attorney with Littleton-based Gutterman Griffiths and co-counsel in the court case against Colorado’s gay-marriage ban, said she wasn’t certain how things might play out between the attorney general’s office and Boulder County.

Even if the stay is deemed to apply to the entire 10th Circuit, she said, the invalidation of any same-sex marriage licenses issued in the coming days will be only a temporary setback.

“In the long run, I think they’ll all be valid,” Gushurst said. “It is inevitable that marriage bans everywhere will fall.”

Gay couples can marry legally in 19 states and the District of Columbia. All states that prohibit gay marriage now face legal challenges to those bans.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who represents Boulder County and is gay, told the Daily Camera that no matter how the issue ends up getting resolved — whether in the state legislature, at the ballot box or in the courts — the tide is rapidly changing on the legitimacy of gay marriage.

“It’s very exciting that same-sex marriage has come full circle in Boulder County,” Polis said.

At a pro-gay marriage rally held in Denver’s Civic Center park Wednesday evening, a series of speakers lauded the federal appellate court’s ruling and talked about the long road traveled to get to this point.

“I’ve been really impatient about (the ruling) for months,” said 13-year-old Morgan Martin, whose parents met in Oklahoma.

Jodi Martin,who is in a civil union with her partner, Jenny, said she took hope from Hall’s decision to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses in Boulder County.

“This is different from 1975,” she said. “It’s affirming to see Boulder County willing to take a step forward. It’s affirming for couple and families. It makes a statement.”

Ryann Peyton, who attended the rally with her wife, Sara Knickerbocker, and their 2-year-old son, said even if the marriage licenses issued by Boulder County are eventually invalidated by a judge, couples have to follow their hearts.

“You always have to do what’s right for your family,” Peyton said. “And if taking advantage of this appears right for your family, that’s what you should do.”

John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold