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Judge allows lesbian couple to use married names on driver's licenses |
Two Sioux Falls women who were legally married in Iowa were granted the right to use their married names today.
Jessica and Aundrea Dybing-Jorgensen petitioned for a name change in Minnehaha County in late January after the Department of Public Safety refused to issue them driver's licenses in their married names.
On Monday, Judge Bill Srstka signed the petitions, which can be used to obtain new driver's licenses.
South Dakota voters passed a same-sex marriage ban in 2006, but the license issue only became a problem last year, when the DPS began requiring four pieces of identification to issue a new license.
Because of the ban, marriage licenses count as proof of a name change for heterosexual couples, but not for homosexual couples.
The Dybing-Jorgensens were denied new driver's licenses following their marriage in Sioux City, Iowa last August. The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota paid the filing fee on the couple's name change petition.
The ACLU also sponsored a name change petition for Amy Stabe, of North Sioux City, who took her wife's name after an Iowa marriage.
Stabe's petition was signed by Judge Steven Jensen in February.
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