Nevada county clerks not seeing a rush for gay marriage licenses

After a flurry of activity and attention following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Nevada, Carson Clerk/Recorder Alan Glover says it’s become “a non-event.”

Just four same-sex couples have applied for a marriage license in the capital — all women.

Glover and other area clerks said they were surprised they didn’t get more couples turning out.

But he said many more couples these days are together but not married than in the past.

“Marriages in the United States are dropping off,” Glover said. “Why would they be any different.”

He said when the first few states like Massachusetts made same sex marriage legal, there was a rush by longtime couples to go to those states. Now, he said, it’s legal across the country.

A spokesman at the Clark County Marriage Bureau said they have had a total of 156 couples apply for a license.

“Most of the people that have done it have been together for years,” she said.

Unlike Carson City, she said those taking out a license are pretty evenly split between male and female couples.

Washoe County Marriage Bureau officials say they have issued just 32 licenses despite being open 8 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. She didn’t have a breakdown of how many are male versus female couples.

Glover said some Carson City couples may have gone to Reno because Carson City no longer stays open 24-7 to issue marriage licenses. As recently as 15 years ago, the Carson clerk’s office was the destination for many couples looking to get married because its door was always open.

Carol McCulloch of the Douglas County Clerk’s Office said they haven’t issued a single license.

“We haven’t had anybody,” she said.

She said the number of marriages in Douglas has been declining anyway and that many times, people go elsewhere once they find out Douglas doesn’t have a Justice of the Peace who does marriages.