ASHEVILLE -- The Buncombe County Register of Deeds has accepted a marriage license request from a same sex couple and says he'll send it to the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Tami Fitzgerald with the North Carolina Values Coalition says, "There's a statute in North Carolina that says that a Register of Deeds can be prosecuted with a Class-1 Misdemeanor, and removed from office if they accept and issue marriage licenses that are illegal." On Monday Cooper announced his support for gay marriage. But he has said he'll defend the state's constitutional ban.