Weddings spike in L.A. County after gay marriage becomes legal
L.A. County had a spike in weddings Monday -- the first time in five years that most same-sex couples could marry in California -- with officials performing eight times as many ceremonies as a week before.
County officials officiated at 244 weddings Monday, compared with just 30 the previous Monday, said Regina Ip, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/Clerk.
Several of the couples who wed Monday told Times reporters they had originally planned to get married in 2008, when same-sex weddings were briefly legal in the state, but lost the opportunity after the passage that year of Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an effort by Prop. 8 backers to appeal a ruling overturning the ban. Late Friday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco issued an order allowing same-sex weddings to resume.
News traveled fast, with the county receiving 606 online applications for marriage licenses over the weekend, Ip said. The weekend before, the county got 123 applications.
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