Photo Credit: Morguefile

Mississippi. First, you have to be the state with the hardest name to spell, and then, you have to be difficult about same-sex marriages. According to Jim Hood, the Mississippi Attorney General, same-sex marriage is still on hold in their state. They cannot begin issuing these marriage licenses immediately. Couples, however, started applying for licenses just moments after the Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is legal nationwide.

Hood, who is a Democrat, claimed that a federal appeals court in New Orleans has to lift this hold on a specific same-sex marriage court case in the state of Mississippi. Apparently, he doesn’t know how long this will take. However, his statement did cause an uproar of confusion in the state, especially for couples like Knol Aust and Duane Smith, who have been a couple for 17 years. Aust alleges that he knew a delay on marriage license was possible, but that it “did sting” when he heard the news. However, he remains upbeat about the waiting. He feels that he and Smith “have always felt [they] had a marriage,” and the couple wants to “get this legal portion out of the way.”

Another couple feeling the sting of marriage delays is Tiffany Brosh and Laurin Locke. They have been together for about three years and had a wedding in Ocean Springs last year. Nonetheless, that wedding wasn’t legally binding because of the state’s ban on gay marriage. Brosh and Locke remain positive as well, citing that “Good things come to those who wait.”

Our thoughts are with these couples and others like them in the state of Mississippi as they wait to get married at home.