US: Pittsburgh mayor marries same-sex couple issued marriage licence by sued county clerk
A Pittsburgh-area mayor has officiated at the wedding of a gay couple who were issued their marriage licence by a county clerk who is being sued by the state’s Health Department for refusing to stop giving out the licences to same-sex couples.
D Bruce Hanes, the register of wills in Montgomery County in south east Pennsylvania has said he wants to come down “on the right side of history and the law”, and agreed to issue a licence last Tuesday to two women who contacted him.
The mayor of Braddock, John Fetterman, on Monday married John Kandray and Bill Gray, both of Pittsburgh, who have been together for eleven years, and who were issued their licence by Hanes, reports the Associated Press.
He said he performed the ceremony despite the state still having a ban on equal marriage. He told KDKA-TV that he thought the Pennsylvania Defense of Marriage Act was “a fundamentally unjust piece of legislation”.
The couple said they wanted to get married to show their commitment to one another.
