KANSAS CITY- The first same sex marriage licenses in Kansas are being released in northeast Kansas.

Equality Kansas reported that Kevin Moriarty, the chief judge of the 10th Judicial District in Johnson County, issued an order giving the go-ahead for same sex marriage. A court document released Wednesday afternoon says:

In the interest of justice and to avoid the uncertainty that has arisen in light of recent federal court rulings about the constitutionality of state constitutional and/or statutory prohibitions against marriage by same-sex individuals, the clerk of the district court is hereby directed to issue marriage licenses to all individuals, including same-sex individuals.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans on gay marriage. One of them was Utah, which is in the same federal appeals court circuit as Kansas.

The Kansas Constitution has banned gay marriage since 2005.