Flanked by their mothers, Berta Arguello, left, and Marlene Pareto, right, Catherina Pareto, second from right, and her partner Karla Arguello, second from left, wait to be married by Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel, Monday, Jan. 5, 2015 in Miami. Judge Zabel provided a jump-start Monday to Florida's entry as the 36th state where gays and lesbians can legally marry. The women were plaintiffs in the Miami-Dade challenge to Florida's gay marriage ban. Photo: Wilfredo Lee, AP

Flanked by their mothers, Berta Arguello, left, and Marlene Pareto, right, Catherina Pareto, second from right, and her partner Karla Arguello, second from left, wait to be married by Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel, Monday, Jan. 5, 2015 in Miami. Judge Zabel provided a jump-start Monday to Florida's entry as the 36th state where gays and lesbians can legally marry. The women were plaintiffs in the Miami-Dade challenge to Florida's gay marriage ban. Photo: Wilfredo Lee, AP

ORLANDO, Fla. — Almost 1,400 gay and lesbian couples were issued marriage licenses in 28 of Florida’s most-populous counties in the two days since a ban on same-sex marriage was lifted, according to a survey of clerks’ of court by The Associated Press.

The clerks had issued 1,377 licenses to same-sex couples as of Tuesday evening, the latest figures available, in counties making up more than 85 percent of Florida’s population of 19.5 million residents.

In many counties, the number of same-sex marriage licenses issued Tuesday was triple, even quadruple, the number of marriage licenses issued on a typical day.

In Orange County, home to Orlando, for example, 164 licenses were issued to same-sex couples alone Tuesday, compared to 40 marriage licenses granted on a typical day.

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The number of gays and lesbians getting married is testament to how much times have changed, said Ken Wright, 68, who married his partner of four decades, 71-year-old Jim Browne, during a ceremony with more than 40 other couples outside Orlando’s City Hall on Tuesday.

“You would never say the word ‘gay’ when we were growing up. You had to whisper it,” Wright said.

In Miami-Dade County, 101 marriage licenses were granted to same-sex couples on Monday and Tuesday. On a typical day, the clerk’s office issues 50 to 70 licenses.

“That was the big bang,” said Roberto Roboso, manager of the marriage-license bureau in the Miami-Dade clerk’s office.

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