Texas attorney general: Same-sex marriage is void

Katey Psencik and Ashley Goudeau | KVUE-TV, Austin

Show Caption Hide Caption Couple issued first gay marriage license in Texas Under a judge's order, a lesbian couple in Texas was issued the state's first same-sex marriage license.

AUSTIN — Hours after a Texas county clerk issued the state's first same-sex marriage license, Texas' attorney general said the marriage is void.

Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday that the Texas Supreme Court granted his request to stay two court rulings declaring Texas' ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

"The Court's action upholds our state constitution and stays these rulings by activist judges in Travis County," Paxton said in a statement. "The same-sex marriage license issued by the Travis County Clerk is void, just as any license issued in violation of state law would be. I will continue to defend the will of the people of Texas, who have defined marriage as between one man and one woman, against any judicial activism or overreach."

According to the Travis County clerk's office, Judge David Wahlberg signed a state court order Thursday, commanding Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir to "cease and desist relying on the unconstitutional Texas prohibitions against same-sex marriage as a basis for not issuing a marriage license specifically to Plaintiffs Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant" because Goodfriend has ovarian cancer.

The couple married under the judge's one-time court order.

The Texas Supreme Court issued an emergency order blocking gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses after the couple wed Thursday.

Despite the attorney general's statement, Debeauvoir said the marriage still stands. In a statement, the clerk's office said, "The Texas Supreme Court order on the Motion for Temporary Relief has stayed further proceedings in the trial court, and is not directed at the County Clerk.

"I have every reason to believe that the actions I took this morning were legally correct based on the trial court's order, and that the license my office issued was then and is now valid. There is no further action for me to take at this time," Debeauvoir said in a statement.

Goodfriend and Bryant filed a petition for relief after a judge ruled Tuesday in an unrelated estate case that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Debeauvoir said Thursday she issued the license, but that any others must be court ordered.

Goodfriend and Bryant were married by their rabbi at the tax assessor's office in Austin on Thursday morning, according to a news release from Katie Naranjo with GNI Strategies, a campaign strategy firm.

"We want to open the door for all LGBT families to have the right to marry in Texas," Bryant said in a statement. "We were both born in Texas, came back to Texas after we met to build a family and establish our lives here. We plan to die here, and we have waited to get married because, as proud Texans, we want a Texas marriage license."

Bryant and Goodfriend have been together for 30 years, Naranjo said. Goodfriend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May. She had emergency surgery after her diagnosis and her last chemotherapy treatment in September.

"When you get out of chemotherapy, I think all of us wonder if the cancer grows back along with our hair growing back," Goodfriend said. "This really is very, very meaningful to our family to have the kind of ability to make personal decisions, health decisions and financial decisions as a family going forward."

Goodfriend also said she did not want Bryant to experience the same problems that Stella Powell and Sonemaly Phrasavath experienced. In October 2013, Powell was diagnosed with colon cancer, and she died eight months later. She did not have a valid will, and because her marriage was not recognized by the state, her belongings went to her siblings instead of her partner. Phrasavath sued for her part of the inheritance.

"I want to finally be able to marry the love of my life," Goodfriend said. "Having faced a life-threatening disease I realized time is precious and that I wanted to spend it on the things that mattered most — my family."

The couple's daughters, Dawn and Ting, joined them at Thursday's ceremony.

"The world is changing, and it's no longer the benefits of, the man works, the woman stays home and cleans," said Dawn Goodfriend. "That's just not the way the world works anymore, and I think Texas needs to step it up and get with the program."

The clerk's office stressed that the order applies only to this specific couple, and any additional licenses issued to same-sex couples in Texas must also be court-ordered.

Bryant and Goodfriend said they believed they were the state's "first LGBT to marry."

Texas' decade-old, voter-approved ban on gay marriage was declared unconstitutional in federal court last year, but the judge stayed the ruling to allow the state to appeal. An appeal is currently pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Courts made a similar exception in April for a lesbian couple in Indiana because one of the women was dying of cancer and wanted her partner's name on her death certificate. A federal appeals court overturned Indiana's ban in September.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to determine later this year whether gay marriage bans nationwide are unconstitutional. The legal tide has in recent years swung sharply in favor of gay marriage, which has rapidly gained acceptance, according to polls.

Contributing: The Associated Press