Two New Orleans men celebrated what apparently was the first same-sex wedding in Louisiana, as the last holdout state began issuing licenses to same-sex couples after the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that marriage is a fundamental right for all Americans.

Gay rights advocates said Louisiana had been the last state to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses when its clerks of court got the go-ahead Monday. That was a reversal from Friday, when the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association said clerks should wait 25 days after the decision, allowing time for the high court to consider a rehearing.

Monday, the court clerks association said that because several local clerks had or would begin issuing the licenses, clerks should begin changes consistent with Friday's Supreme Court opinion to avoid the confusion of multiple starting dates.

The threat of lawsuits may have hurried the decision, said John Hill of the Forum for Equality Louisiana, an LGBT rights group that helped arrange the wedding of Michael Robinson, 41, and Earl Benjamin, 39.

The forum sent the clerks association a letter late Sunday saying that clerks of court would open themselves up to lawsuits if they refused to grant something the Supreme Court had found to be a fundamental right.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's executive counsel, Thomas Enright, said officials who object to same-sex marriage on religious grounds don't have to officiate at such weddings or approve the licenses if someone without religious objections can do it.

The Supreme Court ruling "does not permit states to bar same-sex couples from marriage, but the ruling in no way forces specific individuals to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, or to perform or facilitate same sex marriages," Thomas Enright wrote in a memo from Jindal's press office.

He said Jindal's executive order in May also protects the jobs of state workers in such cases.

Jefferson Parish may have been the first parish to issue the licenses Monday morning.

Parish Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer said in a telephone interview that the office's attorney pored over the court's ruling and decided there was no valid reason to delay.

"History is being made," Gegenheimer said after being told that a couple was receiving a license.

It started a run: By midafternoon, about a dozen licenses had been issued and a dozen more applicants were in line, Gegenheimer said.

Some state and local officials around the U.S. are resisting the Supreme Court's landmark ruling.

In Kentucky, some court clerks were refusing to issue marriage licenses to any couple Monday, despite Gov. Steve Beshear's order that all the state's clerks to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses Friday. In a statement Monday, he said he expects all clerks, who are elected officials, "to execute the duties of their offices as prescribed by law."

In Texas, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the decision a "lawless ruling" and said state workers can cite their religious objections in denying marriage licenses.

He warned in a statement Sunday that any clerk, justice of the peace or other administrator who declines to issue a license to a same-sex couple could face litigation or a fine. But in a nonbinding legal opinion, the top legal official in Texas said "numerous lawyers" stand ready to defend, free of charge, any public official refusing to grant one. (hhr)

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