Virginia Marries Same-Sex Couple They Believed to Be Husband-Wife

Posted on June 26, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

Two men married in Virginia in March after one passed as a bride haven’t been seen since mid-May, when one of them sought a name change in court and their unusual situation was uncovered.

Virginia_wedding CNN reports: “Now authorities in Virginia, where same-sex marriages are illegal, are weighing whether to file misdemeanor charges against the couple, Antonio E. Blount, 31, and Justin L. McCain, 18….A prosecutor says the decision to press charges could turn on whether the pair knowingly misled officials when they applied for a license and later, traveled to a courthouse for a ceremony…The pair went to Newport News Circuit Court on March 24 to obtain a marriage license — McCain appearing as a woman and saying the name ‘Justine’ before a deputy, said Newport News Circuit Court clerk Rex Davis. McCain produced a Virginia driver’s license, but a design quirk — the ‘m’ or ‘f’ for male or female appears directly against a darkened state seal — meant nobody noticed McCain’s gender, Davis said. ‘When things are rolling along and you don’t have any reason to suspect that somebody is not being completely forthright with you, you might not take the time to check,’ said Davis, who issues about 2,200 licenses a year. The same day, the couple traveled 19 miles south to Norfolk, where local marriage commissioner Al Coward performed the ceremony. ‘They pawned themselves off as a man and a woman, and they did a very good job,’ he said.”