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Texas Lets Lone 'Medically Fragile' Gay Couple Wed

Court orders county clerk to issue one marriage license
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2015 1:28 PM CST
Texas Lets Lone 'Medically Fragile' Gay Couple Wed
In this 2008 file photo, a Texas state flag and a Dallas Cowboys banner flies over the parking lot at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas.   (AP Photo/File)

Texas has its first legally married same-sex couple as of this morning, reports the Austin American-Statesman—despite the Lone Star State's current ban on gay marriage. Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, who live in Austin and have been together 30 years, got a one-time court-ordered marriage license in Travis County; a district judge had earlier directed Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to stop relying on "the unconstitutional Texas prohibitions against same-sex marriage as a basis for not issuing a marriage," reports the AP. The reason for the exception? Goodfriend, who works for state Rep. Celia Israel, has ovarian cancer; DeBeauvoir describes her as having "severe and immediate health concerns" and the pair as "medically fragile."

"We are all waiting for a final decision on marriage equality," DeBeauvoir said, adding that any future licenses must be court-ordered. "However, this couple may not get the chance to hear the outcome." Goodfriend and Bryant were married by a rabbi with their two daughters as witnesses. Per a statement Bryant put out later: "We were both born in Texas, came back to Texas after we met to build a family and establish our lives here. We plan to die here, and we have waited to get married because, as proud Texans, we want a Texas marriage license." She was more effusive earlier, telling the American-Statesman that "it's very exciting. My little one was worried about missing her history class. I said we'll be making history." Mashable has a copy of the court order. (More Texas stories.)

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