Second Oregon county says gay couples can marry
Benton County will issue licenses to same-sex couples
 |  Carolyn Bales, left, and partner Gwen Spencer smile after Bales testified at a public hearing Tuesday on same-sex marriage in Benton County. |
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 A second Oregon county has agreed to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
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(CNN) -- Commissioners in a second Oregon county voted Tuesday to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The board of commissioners of Benton County agreed to follow in the footsteps of Multnomah County, a Benton spokeswoman said.
The county's district attorney said county officials will begin distributing the licenses March 24. Benton County, about 70 miles southwest of Portland, is home to the city of Corvallis and Oregon State University.
On Monday, county commissioners in Multnomah, Oregon's largest county, decided to continue issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, ignoring an admonition from the state's governor and attorney general to stop until the state Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of a law banning such unions.
After debating an opinion by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers over the weekend, Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn issued a statement Monday saying that the licensing will continue.
"The attorney general's opinion offers no assurance whatsoever that Multnomah County will not be sued successfully by any same-sex couple who is denied a license while it waits for the issue to get to the Supreme Court," Linn's statement said.
Multnomah began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples March 3, after the county attorney concluded that refusing to do so violated the state constitution. More than 2,000 such licenses have been issued.
On Friday, Myers issued an opinion saying existing state law "unquestionably" limits marriage to couples of the opposite sex.
But he also said he believes the law likely violates a state constitutional prohibition against granting "privileges and immunities" to one "class of citizens" while denying them to another.
Washington is among a handful of states debating the legality of same-sex marriages.
Marriage licenses have also been granted to same-sex couples in San Francisco, California; New Paltz, New York; Asbury Park, New Jersey; and Sandoval County, New Mexico.
There have been legal challenges to the licenses in each of the municipalities.
Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to legally sanction gay marriage after the state's Supreme Judicial Court ordered state officials to grant same-sex marriage licenses by May 17.
But legislators there took tentative steps last week in favor of a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage but would make same-sex civil unions legal. (Full story)
