An appeals court declined on Wednesday to lift a stay of a Key West judge’s ruling that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry in Monroe County.
Key West bartenders Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones, who won permission last week from Monroe Chief Circuit Judge Luis Garcia to marry, had asked the appeals court to lift an automatic stay of the ruling that went into effect when the state appealed Garcia’s decision.
This was the men’s second attempt at lifting the stay. On Monday, Garcia, who declared Florida's 2008 gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, denied their first request.