OK-End of civil marriage

[Ms. Toad]

60. I don't recall the status of Oklahoma -

but if Oklahoma is within a Circuit Court that mandates recognition of same gender marriage, then yes. (Once marriage discrimination is declared illegal, in statutes husband and wife would be interchangeable so long as the reference was not gender specific for a constitutionally valid reason - the only one I can think of off the top of my head is that gender based combat restrictions have been found to be constitutional. Common law is even clearer, because husband and wife are not part of a statute - but applied by the court. Until very recently, marriages were mixed gender. Any court complying with the new constitutional interpretation would read them as interchangeable.

You can't do an end run around the constitution by relying on language in statutes based on principles that have been declared unconstitutional.

As to common law marriages - wherever Common Law marriage is recognized, it has always been open to anyone legally permitted to marry. (Which is why same gender couples have not - until recently - been able to take advantage of common law marriages even when they hold themselves out to be married.

Which actually raises an interesting personal question I hadn't thought of. My same gender marriage predates the abolition of new common law marriage in Ohio ~1990 - but previously established ones survive. When marriage discrimination is finally declared unconstitutional by the court, I wonder if I can claim even earlier legally married status? I was assuming that the limit was my Canadian marriage in 2004 (recognized by the Federal Government as the start of my marriage). Our common law marriage, but for the unconstitutional prohibition on its recognition - dates to 1981.