Some gay marriage opponents balk, while couples rush to wed

Some couples rushed to marriage license bureaus and even wed Friday within hours of the Supreme Court ruling that said gay couples can marry anywhere in the country including in the 14 remaining states with bans.

Same-sex couples got marriage licenses Friday in Dallas, Austin and the state's other big cities, but many counties were holding off after the Texas attorney general urged them not to rush.

Religious organizations are exempt from the ruling, and churches including Southern Baptists, Mormons and others that oppose same-sex marriages can still make their own decisions about whether clergy will conduct gay marriages in their places of worship.

[...] in Kansas, where some counties have continued to refuse to comply with federal rulings that gay couples could marry, the attorney general and Gov. Sam Brownback said they would study the Supreme Court ruling further before making any moves in a lawsuit over the state's voter-passed ban.

Officials at the county courthouse in Toledo, Ohio, called in another minister to perform same-sex marriages Friday because the rotating minister on duty wouldn't marry gay couples, said the Rev. Sandra Frost, who married the first couple around noon.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond (Virginia) law professor, said political opponents of same-sex marriage will likely push legislation to expand religious freedom and to aim at protecting those who don't want to participate in actions that facilitate same-sex marriage.