With marriage licenses available for same-sex couples in California starting Tuesday, California officials are stepping up their efforts in anticipation of a flood of gay couples tying the knot in the state.

The California Supreme Court on June 4 refused to issue a stay in its May ruling allowing same-sex couples to wed, despite a request to stay the implementation until November from the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization based in Arizona.

But one county in a conservative region of the state has ceased to perform marriage ceremonies altogether.

Kern County will cease to issue marriage licenses for all couples, gay or straight, starting today. A statement on the web site for Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett states that the county does not have the staff or space to handle the expected increase in wedding ceremonies.

“Because of the long-term administrative plans, budgetary reasons and the need to increase security for elections, the Clerk’s office will cease solemnizing weddings, which is discretionary on the part of the County Clerk,” the web site states. Barnett did not return calls seeking comment.

But a Monday article in the Bakersfield Californian suggests that Barnett issued the order because of religious objections. In an e-mail to the Alliance Defense Fund, Assistant County Clerk Glenn Spencer asks the firm whether it will defend Barnett if Kern County stopped performing ceremonies.

“Will Alliance Defense Fund defend the County Clerk if she ceases performing all marriage ceremonies as of 5:00 p.m. on June 16th?” Spencer wrote. “We have the news media calling for her response and we need to issue a news release today, but she really wants to be assured of your legal assistance before she speaks to them, as we fully expect to be sued and our own counsel is not being of help.”

Barnett has a history of opposing same-sex marriage. At her request, a brief was filed with the California Supreme Court opposing the implementation of the justices’ ruling on marriage, according to the Bakersfield Californian. Further, after the ruling was made, Barnett tried to resign her position as clerk while keeping her other duties as auditor-controller and elections boss

Brian Raum, senior attorney for Alliance, confirmed to the Blade that Kern County sought the organization’s help. He called the e-mail a “routine request for legal advice.”

“The real concern is what appears to be an intentional act of distributing confidential and privileged communications,” he said.

Raum said Alliance will defend any county clerk that decides to cease performing wedding ceremonies. Alliance also sued to stop New York from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Gay marriage is illegal in New York but Gov. David Paterson (D) told state agencies last month that they had to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

Calif. cities gear up for marriage

While Kern County is getting out of the business of officiating weddings, most California officials are bracing for a frenzy of marriage license applications.

A report published Monday by the Williams Institute at the University of California in Los Angeles projects that about 51,320 same-sex couples will marry in California within the next three years.

Brad Sears and M.V. Lee Badgett, who wrote the report, expect that the availability of same-sex marriage in California will be a tremendous economic boon to the state. The authors estimate that allowing gay couples to wed “could result in approximately $683.6 million in additional spending on weddings and tourism in the state over the next three years.”

Same-sex marriage will create about 2,178 new jobs for California and put about $63.8 million in the coffers of the state and local governments, the report states.

Dean Logan, clerk for Los Angeles County, said his office has undergone a number of expansions to prepare for the expected increase in couples applying for marriage licenses.

“Basically, what we’re trying to do is just increase capacity and gear up for what we expect to be an initial high-volume interest,” he said.

Los Angeles City Hall will have extended hours when same-sex marriage licenses first become available, Logan said. The building will be open all day on June 21, a Saturday, when City Hall is normally closed. An additional center that will issue licenses and perform ceremonies will also be set up in West Hollywood, a gay neighborhood.

Logan said his office is “gearing up for thousands, as opposed to hundreds” of same-sex marriages in the first weeks they are available.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that about 250 gay couples have made appointments in San Diego County to obtain marriage licenses in June. More than 50 have been scheduled for Tuesday, the first day same-sex weddings are legal.

Ken Yeager, a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, also said his office has been busy making changes, mostly geared toward ensuring that gay couples feel comfortable when they come to County Government Center in San Jose to apply for a marriage license.

“We’re looking at things through ‘gay eyes’ to make sure that again there’s nothing that happens that’s embarrassing or awkward for anybody,” he said.

The marriage applications throughout California have been changed so that they no longer say “Bride” and “Groom” and say instead “Party A” and “Party B.”

Yeager, the first openly gay elected official for Santa Clara County, became certified as a marriage commissioner June 2 to officiate over some of the first same-sex weddings in California.

“A lot of gay and lesbian couples prefer to have somebody that they know officiate and many of them know me and so they’ve all asked me if I would do it,” he said.

Yeager said applying for a marriage license is a simple process. A couple needs to fill out forms, pay a fee and then participate in the ceremony, he said. A blood test, previously a condition for obtaining a marriage license, will be unnecessary because the requirement was eliminated in 1995.

“From the moment you get to the front window and begin to fill out the form, if you don’t already have the form filled out, it takes 20 minutes,” he said.

Plaintiff couples plan ceremonies

The couples that brought the suit to the California Supreme Court enabling same-sex marriage in the state are also busy with wedding plans.

Stuart Gaffney, project director for the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at University of California in San Francisco, and his partner of 21 years, John Lewis, an attorney, are wasting no time in getting married. They have plans to apply for a marriage license at San Francisco City Hall at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday Their ceremony is slated to begin at 9 a.m.

Only six people are allowed in San Francisco City Hall for each wedding ceremony, so while the actual ceremony will involve only a few people close to Gaffney and Lewis, they expect 60 at a reception to follow.

Gaffney said planning for the wedding has been an emotional time for him and his family.

“Our hope and our dream is just to get married as soon as possible and be part of really a wonderful historic moment all across California,” he said.

Gaffney and Lewis were among the approximately 4,000 couples that, in 2004, married in San Francisco, which, under the guidance of Mayor Gavin Newsom, briefly issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But in August of that year, the California Supreme Court ruled that Newsom had overstepped his authority and voided those licenses.

While Gaffney and Lewis are getting married in June, other couples that were plaintiffs in the marriage lawsuit are willing to put off their nuptials until the fall to have more time for planning.

Jewelle Gomez, a writer and director of grants for the Horizons Foundation, and her partner Diane Sabin, executive director for the Lesbian Health Research Center, are planning to get married at the San Francisco Public Library this fall and will possibly hold the ceremony on Halloween.

“We’re not going to rush out — we’ve only been engaged for 15 years,” she said.

Gomez said she and her partner want to marry before California residents vote this November on a state constitutional amendment constitutional banning same-sex marriage.

Andrea Gillespie, a prominent lesbian activist and friend to Gomez and Sabin, will be deputized as marriage commissioner to perform the ceremony, Gomez said.

The wedding will be “non-traditional” because the couple wants the ceremony to be political and encourage people “to think about what this is in terms of human rights,” she said. The wedding will also be focused on “community building” because “unions are about building community and about how communities come together to support each other,” Gomez said.

In their vows, the couple intends to talk about sex to dispel the myth that lesbians in long-term relationships, “particularly middle-aged lesbians,” don’t have sex, Gomez said.

Another plaintiff couple — Jeanne Rizzo, executive director of the Breast Cancer Foundation, and her partner of 19 years, Pali Cooper, a chiropractor — are planning an August wedding.

Rizzo said she and her partner put off the ceremony because Cooper’s father died unexpectedly the Friday after the Supreme Court issued its ruling.

“So we won’t be getting married in the first wave,” Rizzo said. “We’ll be allowing some family grieving time and then we’ll celebrate at the end of this summer.”

The couple intends to tie the knot at San Francisco City Hall with Newsom officiating the ceremony. The two will wear Hawaiian leis while exchanging vows in honor of the first time they held a commitment ceremony in Hawaii. The couple will also rededicate the diamond and sapphire rings they exchanged 18 years ago.

“We’ll polish them up and it’ll be really nice to have them be our true wedding bands,” Rizzo said.

Gay groups caution against filing lawsuits

But while gay couples are making plans to tie the knot in California, a coalition comprised of high-profile gay advocacy groups is advising couples against taking their ambition to marry too far to the point of starting lawsuits throughout the country.

California, unlike Massachusetts, has no residency requirement for marriage, so gay couples from across the country are able to marry in the state. Couples from out-of-state could marry in California, then sue to have their marriage recognized in their states of residence.

The coalition, which released its guidance this week, urges couples against any attempt to “go suing right away.”

“Most lawsuits will likely set us all back,” the guidance states. “Pushing the federal government before we have a critical mass of states recognizing same-sex relationships or suing in states where the courts aren’t ready is likely to get us bad rulings.”

The coalition includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Equality Federation, Freedom to Marry, Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.

The guidance states that the best way to advance same-sex marriage throughout the country is to proceed through the state courts and the state legislatures.

“When we’ve won in a critical mass of states, we can turn to Congress and the federal courts,” the guidance states. “At that point, we’ll ask that the U.S. government to treat all marriages equally.”

Efforts in making the marriage of gay couples “a conspicuous part of American society” will enable the gay community to win equal treatment, the guidance states.