Erie judge ends legal limbo for couple’s marriage

Oct. 19--More than a year after Tiffany Jo Titus and Wendy Allison Titus were married by an ordained minister in Erie County, it is finally official.

An Erie County judge has declared the two legally married in Erie County.

The Erie County women were the first same-sex couple to wed in Erie County with a state-issued marriage license.

But they did not do so after the landmark ruling in the Whitewood v. Wolf case, which in May legalized same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania.

Instead, the Tituses in August 2013 obtained their marriage license in Montgomery County during a brief window of time when an official there issued licenses to nearly 200 same-sex couples after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the anti-gay marriage law, the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

In the wake of the Whitewood decision in May, the legal status of the marriages of couples like the Tituses had remained in legal limbo.

But with a stroke of a pen by Erie County Judge Robert A. Sambroak Jr., that uncertainty ended.

"It is another step closer to equality for everyone," Tiffany Jo "T.J." Titus, 30, said.

T.J. Titus said she would not have minded if she and Wendy Titus, 31, had to marry again.

"Our wedding was great," she said.

But she said it is a relief to have the marriage legally affirmed.

Any questions about its validity are now "water under the bridge," she said.

"We can keep moving forward, not wondering," she said.

The Whitewood decision, authored by a U.S. District Court judge based in Harrisburg, overturned key parts of Pennsylvania's marriage law and cleared the way for future same-sex marriages.

The judge said same-sex marriages from out of state must be recognized.

But his decision did not address the status of same-sex couples who had married with the Montgomery County licenses in 2013.

The state Commonwealth Court had eventually forced the Montgomery County official -- Orphans' Court Clerk D. Bruce Hanes -- to stop issuing the licenses in September 2013 after the state Department of Health took legal action.

Erie lawyer Alison Scarpitti filed a motion in July asking Sambroak to end the Tituses' uncertainty and declare their marriage legally valid.

Having the marriage validated would address practical and legal concerns, such as taxes and health insurance benefits, she said. It was also their right, she said.

"They stood before friends and family and said the same vows everybody else says. In a way it is dehumanizing to say the commonwealth does not recognize that," she said.

Before a hearing could be held, however, Scarpitti entered into settlement negotiations with the state Department of Health.

The result is a settlement agreement modeled after one that was pursued by 22 other same-sex couples who, like the Tituses, had been married in 2013 with marriage licenses issued in Montgomery County, which is located in suburban Philadelphia.

The state Department of Health continues to maintain that the clerk who issued the marriage licenses in 2013 in Montgomery County did not have the legal authority to do so.

But under the terms of the agreement, which was approved by Sambroak and filed in Erie County Court on Thursday, the state agrees to recognize the Tituses' marriage as valid from after May 20, which is the date the Whitewood decision was issued.

"Both Wendy and T.J. are happy with the resolution, and thus, I am as well," Scarpitti said. "Given the circumstances surrounding the issuance of the license, I think that this is a fair compromise that benefits everyone. I had expected more difficulties, but the Office of General Counsel (which represented the Department of Health) was very cooperative and understanding of the situation."

T.J. Titus said the ruling is just one more example of how far the movement for equality has come.

"I came out in 2004. If you had told me then, that 10 years later we would have been here, I would have probably said, 'No way in Hades,'" she said.

"It is so affirming. People know we are not different. We are just like everybody else. It gives us a lot of hope."

LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNthompson.

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