US: Pennsylvania mayor says she is happy to marry same-sex couples

A mayor in the US state of Pennsylvania has said she will marry same-sex couples if they have already been issued with a marriage licence.

The Mayor of State College, Elizabeth Goreham, said in an interview with WJAC-TV that she would have no issue with conducting same-sex weddings.

It was announced earlier this week that the Pennsylvania health department is suing a court clerk in Montgomery County who has been issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples.

Goreham does not have the authority herself to issue marriage licences, but is able to marry couples who have been issued one. She said she would honour marriage licences issued in Montgomery, should couples ask her to marry them.

The state attorney general Kathleen Kane has said she will not defend the state’s ban on equal marriage, following a lawsuit being filed to challenge the ban.

The ACLU and the Philadelphia law firm Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin and Schiller, filed the complaint earlier this week in the US District Court, in an effort to have the state’s Defense of Marriage Act deemed unconstitutional.

• Dec 01 2023

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