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She had no trouble obtaining a Nebraska driver’s license at 16, but now she’s been turned down at 51.

It has nothing to do with Sue Stroesser’s ability to drive, and everything to do with another kind of license: her Iowa marriage license, attesting that she is wed to Mary Stroesser.

Although staffers at the Department of Motor Vehicles office near 50th and L Streets in Omaha were polite, Sue said, she left in tears.

“At the core of my pain and shock,” she said, “is that I am from Omaha. I was born and raised here. These are my people, and these are Mary’s people. I am left feeling angry, sad and a little bit empty.”

The problem at the DMV has to do with her name change — and Nebraska’s 2000 constitutional amendment that says the state does not recognize same-gender marriages.

As a teenager attending Omaha Westside High, Sue got her driver’s license under her maiden name, Kirchofer.

Sue and Mary, who have been together for 30 years, lived on the West Coast before moving back to the Omaha-Council Bluffs area in 2003 to be closer to both of their families.