THE ANSWER IS NO | Dallas County Clerk John F. Warren, center, explains to Queer LiberAction leader Blake Wilkinson, right, and other QL members that he cannot issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple because of Texas’ anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment during a Freedom to Marry Day protest QL staged at the county Records Building on Wednesday, Feb. 17. Wilkinson, quoting from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," urged Warren to take a stand for LGBT civil rights by refusing to enforce unjust laws. But Warren declined, saying he had taken an oath to uphold the laws of the state. QL and Equality March Texas staged their initial Freedom to Marry Day protest — which included a wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple — outside the Records Building on Friday, Feb. 12. But the couple were unable to go into the County Clerk’s office and apply for a marriage license that day because the office was closed due to snow. Photos by David Taffet of the Feb. 12 protest can be seen online at DallasVoice.com/Instant-Tea. (Tammye Nash/Dallas Voice)
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 19, 2010.