With this job, she doth wed

Portia Sanders has been left at the altar again.

Just days ago, she was downing Monster energy drinks and orchestrating the dizzying logistics of joining in holy matrimony an expected surge of gay and lesbian couples across Los Angeles County.

A federal judge, who ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, had cleared the way for same-sex marriages to begin on Wednesday evening after a ban of nearly two years. As division manager of public records for the county’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, it was Sanders’ job to make sure the couples were hitched without a hitch.

Plans were well in the works to install partitions in an executive conference room at the Norwalk headquarters to create seven “small chapels” for the exchange of marital vows.

And Sanders, although anxious about the many tasks ahead, was excited about a repeat of the experiences she’d had with same-sex marriages back in 2008, before the passage of Proposition 8.

“That was one of the most rewarding times of my career,” says Sanders, who has worked for the county for 24 years. “There was so much love, so much happiness. Even the most conservative person couldn’t help shed a tear. There were no ‘tough guys’ anywhere.”

But for now, Sanders, who was planning on performing a few marriage ceremonies herself, will have to wait for another one of those career highlights. Late Monday, she got the word that a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had imposed an emergency stay of the trial court judge’s ruling. The impact: same-sex marriages will be on hold until at least December.

“I’m disappointed because people don’t have the right to do what they want to do. That’s my personal opinion,” says Sanders. But, by now, she knows that marriage deferred is not necessarily marriage denied. “At least the delay gives us more time to fine-tune.”

To date, most of her planning has centered on making sure there are enough staffers to process licenses and perform ceremonies in Norwalk and at a half-dozen field offices, a task she says may be tougher around the December holidays. Sanders says she has had to draw employees from, among other places, the real estate division. She also has juggled assignments for a small number of employees who, citing religious views, have said they do not want to perform same-sex marriages.

“This is part of their job but we cut them some slack in performing the ceremony. We have them type up marriage licenses,” Sanders says, stressing that each request is carefully examined.

For the most part, L.A. County marriage ceremonies are conducted by volunteers, who are deputized by the registrar-recorder’s office. According to Sanders, some are retired men whose wives have told them to spend more time outside the house. Others, she says, might hold emotionally challenging jobs, such as working in a hospice, and enjoy the lift they get from joyful marriage ceremonies. “It evens it out for them,” says Sanders, who says the department is always seeking more volunteers to perform marriages—same-sex or otherwise.

In some respects, Sanders says she expects the next round of gay marriages (should they occur) to go more smoothly than in 2008. The marriage license itself, for example, has already been changed and integrated into the system. It no longer asks for the name of the “bride” and “groom.” That’s been changed to “first person” and “second person,” Sanders says.

She suspects, however, that one thing will remain the same—the “very reverent” attitude the participants brought to the ceremony. “They didn’t want anyone thinking they were making a mockery of marriage.”

Posted 8/19/10