The DC Marriage Bureau usually has about ten applications for marriage licenses a day.  Today they will have a couple of hundred.  And the form now asks for the name of each “spouse” rather than the “bride” and “groom.

That’s because of a new law that makes Washington, DC, the sixth jurisdiction in the U.S. to allow same-sex marriages, joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.  The law passed in the city, surviving a review by the U.S. Congress and a challenge in the United States Supreme Court.

The first marriages will be performed next Tuesday, because of a mandatory waiting period in DC.

While Maryland does not permit same-sex marriages, Doug Gansler, its Attorney General, issued an opinion last week that Maryland should recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

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