Lisa and Carrie Curtis picked up their marriage license on Monday, Oct. 13 in the Lafayette County Courthouse and were married that very same day.
    The couple, who live in the Calamine area, have been together for seven years and filed for a domestic partnership in 2009, but have not been able to legally get married in the state of Wisconsin until now.
    “It’s just awesome that we finally can,” said Carrie. “But we were surprised that it happened so soon. We were thinking it was going to be after the first of the year at least.”
    Although Lisa and Carrie were not expecting to be able to say “I do” anytime soon, they never considered going out of the state to be married.
    “We just figured that we’d wait for it to get here,” said Lisa.
    “It wouldn’t have been recognized here anyway, even if we did that,” added Carrie.
    This couples right to marry comes after the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday, Oct. 6, to not hear cases involving appeals from five states, including Wisconsin, to uphold their bans on same-sex marriage.
    On Friday, June 6, Judge Barbara Crabb of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled that Wisconsin’s Marriage Protection amendment to the state constitution was unconstitutional, causing confusion on the legality of same-sex marriage throughout the state, as hundreds of same-sex couples flocked to courthouses to apply for marriage licenses, including Lisa and Carrie, who were at that time denied by the Lafayette County Clerk’s office.
    After about a week, Crabb issued a stay on her ruling, halting same-sex marriages in counties that were issuing licenses to same-sex couples, until state officials, including Wisconsin attorney general J.B. Van Hollen could pursue an appeal.
    Crabb’s ruling was upheld by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, Sept. 4, causing Van Hollen to take the matter to the Supreme Court.