'It Just Feels Like Arbitrary Discrimination': Legally Married Lesbian Couple Told to Get Court Order for Name Changes

Cindy Norlin, left, and Leslie Ann Thompson were told they couldn’t change their names without a court order, even though they legally married in New Mexico. (Screenshot: Leslie Ann Norlin-Thompson Facebook page)

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A same-sex couple from Royal Oak who were legally married in New Mexico in June ran into a snag when they tried to change their surnames on their driver licenses.

Leslie Thompson and Cindy Norlin were turned away by a Michigan Secretary of State officials, who reportedly told the couple they had been “ordered” not to change newly gay couples’ names because same-sex marriage remains illegal in Michigan, The Oakland Press reports.

A voter-backed same-sex marriage ban was struck down as unconstitutional in March, but the federal judge’s ruling, along with rulings in three other states, are currently under review by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The consolidation of gay marriage cases in four states in a single hearing, along with similar bundling of cases to be heard in the 7th and 9th Circuits in the coming weeks, is the latest signal that same-sex marriage advocates and critics are headed for a final showdown in the Supreme Court. More than 75 current lawsuits affecting the legal status of same sex marriage are pending or have been filed in 32 states and territories.

But until the courts sort out the issue, couples like the Royal Oak women, who want to change their last names to Norlin-Thompson are in a state of legal limbo in which some jurisdictions recognize their marriage and others don’t.

Thompson and Norlin argue the status of same-sex marriage in Michigan should be beside the point in their case. They were married in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, and they believed the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act gave them legal cover.

It doesn’t, state officials say.

A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office told The Oakland Press that its clerks were following office policy and state law by denying the name changes. Also, the DOMA ruling doesn’t require states to recognize same-sex marriages. Some federal judges have cited the decision in rulings – some of them currently on appeal with the 6th Circuit – requiring states to recognize legal same-sex marriages performed out-of-state, but Michigan isn’t among them.

Their “dual citizenship” of a sort is “very frustrating for us,” Thompson said.

Routine name changes sailed through their local Social Security Administration office, which is governed by federal law. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder cited DOMA last spring when he said the federal government would recognize the nearly 300 same-sex marriages performed in Michigan during the brief 24-hour period same-sex marriage was legal in Michigan.

At the state level, the opposite is true. Gov. Rick Snyder acknowledged the hasty marriages were legal, but said the state wouldn’t recognize them until the 6th Circuit rules.

What that means for Thompson and Norlin is more hassle. The names on two important forms of identification – their Social Security cards and their driver licenses – don’t match, snarling the couple in more red tape as they try to reconcile the names on insurance policies and financial documents.

Norlin and Thompson said they were told they could seek a court order requiring the Secretary of State’s Office to change their names – a process not required of opposite-gendered married couples. Why should they be have to come up with court costs to get the same service from their government that other married couples receive at no charge, the women wonder.

“It just feels like arbitrary discrimination to me,” Norlin said.