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Hood County Will Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses After All

Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon/KUT
Diane Jones and Bryna Wortham stand with Rev. Richard Bates at their wedding ceremony at the Travis County Courthouse on Friday.

A North Texas county will issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even though the clerk in charge of such documents says it's against her beliefs.

Hood County Clerk Katie Lang, in a statement Wednesday on the county website, says her office will comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. Justices last Friday legalized gay marriage nationwide.

Many county clerks in Texas immediately began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Lang initially said she believed it was morally and biblically incorrect to hand out marriage licenses to gay couples and said the Hood County office would not do so.

Lang's updated statement says her religious beliefs prevent her from issuing such licenses, but she says her office will comply with the law and do so.

"The religious doctrines to which I adhere compel me to personally refrain from issuing same-sex marriage licenses," Lang said in her statement on Wednesday. "Nonetheless, in addition to the county clerk offices in the several surrounding counties, as soon as the appropriateforms have been printed and supplied to my office, the County Clerk’s Office of Hood County will have staff available and ready to issue same-sex marriage licenses."

Check out KERA's earlier story on how Texas counties had differing opinions on issuing same-sex marriage licenses.