Remembering all fifty states is hard for some folks. New Mexico resident Gavin Clarkson and his now-wife learned that the hard way earlier this month, when the couple was told his state identification was insufficient to secure a marriage license in Washington, D.C.
Clarkson, who lives in Las Cruces, and his then-fiancée visited the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau on Nov. 20 to apply for a marriage license.
But, once there, the couple encountered a small problem, Clarkson said. The clerk wouldn't accept Clarkson's driver's license — from New Mexico — as proof of his identity. Rather, the clerk, who mistakenly believed Clarkson was a foreign citizen — said he would have to provide an international passport to get the marriage license.
Clarkson knew in his heart that the Land of Enchantment is, in fact, a state (and has been since 1912), so he pushed back, demanding a second opinion on his documentation, leading the clerk to consult her boss.
After Clarkson objected, the clerk went to check with a supervisor, who confirmed Clarkson would need a passport.
"You know you are from flyover country when you are applying for a marriage license, give them your New Mexico driver's license, and they come back and say: 'My supervisor says we cannot accept international driver's licenses. Do you have a New Mexico passport?'" Clarkson posted on Facebook recently.
Speaking with the Sun-News about the incident, Clarkson said the clerk went back to check a second time about whether she could accept a New Mexico driver's license as proof of identity. After that, the personnel finally concluded New Mexico was in fact a U.S. state and accepted his driver's license along with the application.
Clarkson, a recently disgraced Republican fresh off a failed campaign for New Mexico secretary of state, has lived in the state since 2012. He said that he’d heard that people sometimes believe the New Mexico is a country, but he didn’t believe it until it happened to him. It happens so often, there’s even a regular series about it in New Mexico Magazine. Check out this gem:
Santa Fean Matt Ross had trouble streaming video from Amazon Prime, so he messaged customer support. “Prime Video content isn’t currently available outside U.S.,” they said. “Prime Video content can only be purchased by customers in the 50 United States.” In order to watch, they told Ross he would have to sign up for an international plan. Or move to Mexico.
Clarkson, who’s a member of the Choctaw Nation, muses that it would have been easier if he’d just used his tribal ID instead. Clarkson’s wife, Marina, is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina who resides in Washington; she says she was confused when the clerk raved about her now-husband’s mastery of the English language instead of her own.
[She] speaks English fluently, though she has a slight accent. But the clerk complimented Clarkson, not Marina, on how well he spoke the language. He said his wife was in disbelief, wondering: "Why are you complimenting him on his English?"
In a call with the Las Cruces Sun News, the D.C. courts passively aggressively conceded that their staff had screwed up.
"We understand that a clerk in our Marriage Bureau made a mistake regarding New Mexico's 106-year history as a state," said Leah H. Gurowitz, director of media and public relations for D.C. Courts, in an email. "We very much regret the error and the slight delay it caused a New Mexico resident in applying for a DC marriage license."
Notably, Gurowitz didn’t mention whether changes to protocol were being implemented in order to prevent this from happening again. However will they ensure this never happens again? Will the District invest in a map of the United States for each clerk’s desk? A list of all 50 states for every supervisor’s desk? Google on every computer? A GIF on every phone?
Good luck, D.C. courts. You’ll figure it out.
Note: Corrected to indicate that Clarkson had to ask additional personnel to confirm New Mexico was a state.