(Originally posted by Equality Kansas to Equality Kansas News)

Marriage Update – February 9, 2015

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the new Chief Judge of the 28th Judicial District has begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Congrats to the happy couples in Saline and Ottawa, the counties covered in the 28th!

As we’ve been reporting, we’re still stalled on getting complete recognition while our members’ lawsuit makes its way through the legal process. The temporary injunction blocking the Sedgwick and Douglas counties, and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment from enforcing the state ban, still stands. Judges around the state are still making their own decisions regarding the issuance of marriage licenses. Same-sex couples are still having difficulty filing taxes, insuring their spouses, changing drivers licenses, and so on.

For more information on taxes, see our previous article. For more information on other issues regarding marriage in Kansas, see our January 26 marriage update.

Below is our current list of counties issuing, and those not issuing, marriage licenses to same-sex couples. For those keeping score, 2.4 million of Kansas’ 2.88 million residents now live in one of the 61 Kansas counties issuing licenses to same sex couples. That’s just shy of 84%.

The following counties are issuing marriage licenses:

Allen

Atchison

Barton

Bourbon

Brown

Chase

Cherokee

Clark

Clay

Cloud

Comanche

Cowley

Crawford

Dickinson

Doniphan

Douglas

Ellis

Ellsworth

Ford

Geary

Gove

Grant

Gray

Harvey

Haskell

Jewell

Johnson

Kiowa

Labette

Leavenworth

Lincoln

Linn

Lyon

Marion

Marshall

McPherson

Meade

Miami

Mitchell

Morris

Morton

Nemaha

Neosho

Ottawa

Republic

Rice

Riley

Rooks

Russell

Saline

Sedgwick

Seward

Shawnee

Stafford

Stanton

Stevens

Trego

Washington

Wilson

Woodson

Wyandotte

The following counties are notissuing marriage licenses:

Anderson

Butler

Chautauqua

Cheyenne

Coffey

Decatur

Edwards

Elk

Finney

Franklin

Graham

Greeley

Greenwood

Hamilton

Hodgeman

Jackson

Jefferson

Kearny

Lane

Logan

Montgomery

Ness

Norton

Osage

Osborne

Pawnee

Phillips

Pottawatomie

Rawlins

Reno

Rush

Scott

Sheridan

Sherman

Smith

Thomas

Wabaunsee

Wallace

Wichita

And these counties, all in the 30th Judicial District, won’t say. We have been told that, as of today, no couples have submitted an application for a license:

Barber

Harper

Kingman

Pratt

Sumner

Hopefully by the end of June, we’ll be able to color that whole map blue!