After getting gay married in D.C., Traci Turpin changed her last name at the Social Security office and then went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Knoxville, Tennessee. There, she picked up her new license with her new, gay-married last name on it, went back out to the parking lot, got in her car and was about to drive off when a DMV employee sprinted out of the building car and told her to return the license because they don’t recognize same-sex marriages. She refused, so they called in the highway patrol.
If Turpin hadn’t told the DMV staffers she she was married to a woman, she says, there never would have been a problem, and she’d still have the license with her new name. (Her marriage certificate acted as proof of a name change, but because Tennessee doesn’t recognize it, it didn’t qualify as valid evidence.)
Which begs the question, why in the heck did she bother telling the disgruntled folks at the DMV about her same-sex marriage? It’s not like all the straight married people announce the sex of their spouses. Doesn’t she know that the people at the DMV have to sit on ‘roid donuts and drink Splenda all day? They don’t wanna hear anything unless it’s how you wanna kill yourself and even then they’ll just respond, “You forgot to sign here.”
slobone
The article doesn’t say why she was even in Tennessee. Do they live there? Does DC allow marriage by non-residents? It seems to me that if you’re married, you’d want to live in a state that recognizes that marriage, but what do I know…
Flex
They called the highway patrol, and then what happened?
jeffree
State of Michigan: 2006: A str8 friend of mine married a woman. They both decided to hyphenate their last names — well I won’t use their real names— so Janette Smith became Janette Smith-Jones, without any DMV issue, complaint, or involvement of highway patrol. Marriage certificate was provided & no questions were asked. ‘Photo was taken, license issued, no big deal.
Ric Jones, here’s the juice, wanted to become Ric Jones-Smith, and ++total++ mayhem ensued.
DMV Supervisors were awoken from their naps, phone calls were made & it took them 3 months & a couple proBono lawyers to get Ric’s license changed.
The DMV *must* seriously question their M.0.
Evan
“Why did she bother telling?”
Um, did it escape the Queerty editors’ attention that marriage certificates have the names of both partners on them? You don’t have to waltz in and annonce “I just got gay-married!” – you just have to show your marriage certificate, and then not lie when asked about the gender of your partner with the obviously-sex-matched name.