It now seems that the last holdout against marriage equality after the Supreme Court's decision is Kansas. Couples can marry in every county, but Gov. Brownshirt is continuing to obstruct state recognition of the marriages.
From The Wichita Eagle:
Gov. Sam Brownback defended his administration’s reluctance to recognize same-sex marriages Thursday in the wake of a historic Supreme Court decision. He also floated the possibility that he will push to strengthen religious protections in Kansas.There's no actual reason for him to be concerned here. Nothing he could do to recognize the legally performed same-sex marriages would pose any legal problem. There's nothing that needs to be worked out. You have to recognize them.Same-sex couples can now obtain a marriage license in each county in the state, but if they take their marriage certificate to a Division of Vehicles office and ask to change their last names on their driver’s licenses, they will be denied.
Gay state workers are also unable to add their spouses to their state employee health plan, because Brownback has instructed state agencies to not immediately change policies in order to accommodate same-sex couples.
“You have to understand and get the mechanisms in place,” Brownback said. “So that’s what we’ve been studying in meetings with the attorney general and relevant cabinet members.… We’re just examining it carefully. We’ll make sure we’ll protect people’s religious liberties as well.”
Brownback would not give a timeline for when the state would recognize same-sex marriages. “We’ll try to get moving forward as expeditiously as we can. We just want to make sure we’re moving forward appropriately,” he said.
Tom Witt of Equality Kansas has blasted this latest evasion.
“This is just more excuses from a governor who is so blinded by ideology that he has forgotten he took an oath to uphold and support the Constitution of the United States,” said Thomas Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, an LGBT rights group.I think Gov. Brownshirt now has first place for being the most obstructionist on this issue. It started in November, when he directed government agencies, even the ones listed on the injunction, to not recognize the legally performed marriages. He temporarily lost that place in March, when the Alabama Supreme Court did what it did. But now, as he's defying the Supreme Court, he's got it again.Witt contended that the Constitution requires the state to treat the marriages of same-sex couples in the same way that it treats the marriages of heterosexual couples.
“Government employees have to serve everyone equally. Same-sex couples now also deserve the same equal service and equal treatment as any other couple in the state of Kansas,” Witt said. “Any government official or government employee that refuses service to a same-sex couple is violating their oath to the United States Constitution and the constitution of Kansas.”