By Casey Blake

cblake@citizen-times.com





ASHEVILLE

All Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara had to say Friday night was, "it's official," and the screams were deafening.

Gathered in the darkened office of the Buncombe County Register of Deeds more than 20 minutes after closing time, Register Drew Reisinger announced to about 40 people that an order had been filed to allow same-sex marriages in North Carolina.

A federal judge in Asheville struck down the state's gay marriage ban Friday, opening the way for the first same-sex weddings in the state to begin immediately.

Reisinger issued a marriage license to Amy Cantrell and Lauren White, the first same-sex couple in Buncombe County to be married, just minutes later in Asheville. Nineteen total couples were issued licenses after 5 p.m. and all out-of-state marriages were immediately valid in North Carolina.

"It wasn't until I issued the second license that the tears came," Reisinger said shortly after issuing the last license of the day. "It has been heartbreaking to decline these marriage licenses for three and a half years based on discriminatory laws.

"It was an honor to be able to say yes."

U.S. District Court Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr., in Asheville issued a ruling shortly after 5 p.m. declaring the ban approved by state voters in 2012 unconstitutional.

"Personally, it's hard to even describe what it feels like at this moment," Beach-Ferrara, director of the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality, who stood with her wife, Meghann, and son Calvin, on the Register of Deeds office front steps Friday, watching a couple be married behind her. "To know that my marriage to Meghan is recognized, and that my family with Calvin is recognized… I have no words.

"More broadly, it means all people are recognized as equal under the law," she said. "That's an incredible thing."

Cogburn's ruling follows Monday's announcement by the U.S. Supreme Court that it would not hear any appeal of a July ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond striking down Virginia's ban. That court has jurisdiction over North Carolina.

Reisinger kept the Asheville office open until 7 p.m. to begin issuing marriage licenses to waiting couples the moment the ban was struck down.

"The court determines that North Carolina's laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are unconstitutional as a matter of law," wrote Cogburn, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama. "The issue before this court is neither a political issue nor a moral issue. It is a legal issue and it is clear as a matter of what is now settled law in the Fourth Circuit that North Carolina laws prohibiting same sex marriage, refusing to recognize same sex marriages originating elsewhere, and/or threatening to penalize those who would solemnize such marriages, are unconstitutional."

Many couples and supporters left shortly after 5 p.m., assuming a ruling from a parallel case in Greensboro would have to be decided first. Word came Friday afternoon that that ruling would be delayed until 3 p.m. Monday.

Cogburn ruled moments after a different federal judge in Greensboro delayed movement in two cases he oversees until Monday, following a last-ditch effort by Republican leaders at the state legislature to intervene in the cases.

The case in which Cogburn ruled was filed by a group of clergy members seeking to marry same-sex couples, making the argument that their inability to do so under state law was an unconstitutional abridgment of their religious freedom.

Media and advocates across the state reported Friday that no ruling would come.

"This is the most… it's the most I've ever felt," said Betty Mack, who married her partner of 41 years, Carol Taylor, Friday night.

"Never in our wildest, most out-there dreams did we think this would happen," Taylor said. "We just never thought this day would come, for most of the 41 years we have spent together. I can't say how happy we are that we got to see this day."

The couple will be married in their church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, later this month.

Clergy from All Souls Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ in Asheville as well as individual rabbis were plaintiffs in the suit.

Though Cogburn's federal judicial district only covers the western third of the state, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday that the order applies statewide.

Within minutes, couples who brought ministers with them began exchanging their vows on the steps outside the register of deeds.

Some were married on the steps of the register's office, others lined up at the counter inside.

House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate Leader Phil Berger said they were disappointed. Tillis is currently campaigning for U.S. Senate.

"While we recognize the tremendous passion on all sides of this issue, we promised to defend the will of North Carolina voters because they — not judges and not politicians — define marriage as between one man and one woman and placed that in our state constitution," the Republican legislators said in a joint statement.

Gov. Pat McCrory issued a brief statement Friday night, saying his administration would comply with the ruling.

"The administration is moving forward with the execution of the court's ruling and will continue to do so unless otherwise notified by the courts," McCrory said. "Each agency will work through the implications of the court's ruling regarding its operations."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.