State Won't Track Gay Marriage Numbers
On the first day of legal same-sex marriage in Texas, more than 465 couples received licenses in 10 of the state's largest counties, according to numbers provided by clerk's offices.
But keeping track of how many Texans are issued licenses over time may prove difficult because the state, and some counties, do not plan to keep a separate count of same-sex licenses.
A survey of the state's 15 largest counties found that 10 began issuing same-sex marriage licenses on Friday, after the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing it. (The remaining five counties were all issuing licenses by Monday.) It is unclear which county issued the most licenses to same-sex couples because several did not specifically track that.
Though Texas collects detailed data on marriages by county and age, getting better information on same-sex marriage rates in Texas could take years since the state has no plans to separately track those unions. Following Friday’s ruling, the Department of State Health Services released a new gender-neutral marriage application for counties to use. The application does not ask for the sex of either of the applicants.
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/30/same-sex-marriage-licenses-wont-be-tracked/
