The court's official marriage booklet has been updated so that the ceremony will end by pronouncing the couple "legally married" as opposed to "husband and wife." Today, Tuesday, was the first day same-sex couples could marry in Washington D.C.
The District of Columbia has become the sixth place in the country permitting same-sex unions. The others, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont also allow same-sex couples to register for marriage licenses. Once couples pick up their license, they have to have the person who performs their marriage sign it and then return it to the marriage bureau to be recorded.
Same sex marriage was legalized when Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the bill last December at All Souls Church, making the unions lawful.
The quandary that many of these couples have and will continue to have is the recognition of those marriages outside of the state in which they were performed in. Until the Federal government recognizes same sex marriages, those couples will be restricted in their rights to where the marriage was performed.
Some states allow for same sex "unions" not marriages, which carry with them different criteria's and rights than marriage.