North Carolina now has gender neutral marriage license forms.
The Department of Health and Human Services sent copies of the new form to the counties over the weekend. The forms were emailed on Sunday with instructions to print them out on high-quality paper. The move came after a federal judge on Friday struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional.
Days before the ruling, officials in several counties had been pressing the state to distribute the forms in preparation for an expected surge of same-sex couples seeking to legally wed. The Republican administration of Gov. Pat McCrory, who supported the marriage ban, refused.
The state's old forms had blanks only for "Groom" and "Bride." The new forms say "Applicant 1" and Applicant 2."
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