Planning a wedding, while a stressful process for many couples, has become a big insult for one Whitehorse couple.

Stephen Dunbar and his partner of more than two years, Rob Edge, applied for a marriage licence back in early February. They were told at the registry counter that licences weren't being issued to same-sex couples.

That's discriminatory, Dunbar said in an interview Tuesday. He and Edge are taking both the territorial and federal governments to court to prove it.

Another Yukon gay couple stepped over the Yukon border into B.C. last fall to have a legal wedding performed before having a church ceremony in Whitehorse. However, Dunbar said there's no way he's going that route.

'I find it offensive that someone is telling me to leave the territory that I was raised in, that I love, that I have to go somewhere else to get a service that anyone else can have,' said Dunbar.

'It would be like saying, We don't want your baby born in Yukon. Take it down to B.C. where it can have a B.C. birth certificate.'

'I'm as much of a Canadian as a British Columbian and as an Ontario person, and the federal government did urge all to go ahead and start issuing licences,' said Dunbar. 'The fact that they're not doing it is pure discrimination.'

Back in February, the couple had asked for the refusal of a marriage licence in writing so they could fight the matter legally, and Dunbar calls it 'disgraceful' that reply didn't show up until April.

Before they even applied, they'd been told to expect having a hard time, so they asked for the licence even earlier than most couples would.

Their wedding is scheduled for July 17 'a guaranteed blue sky day,' said Dunbar.

After being told verbally they weren't getting their licence, the pair filed a complaint with the Yukon Human Rights Commission.

That commissioners ruled last week that Dunbar's and Edge's complaint was valid, and ordered the territorial government to work with the couple to settle.

But they didn't think there would actually be a settlement, said Dunbar. If the parties fail to settle within 90 days, the matter goes into adjudication.

'So in other words, a very lengthy process,' Dunbar said.

Because that lengthy process would go past their wedding date, the couple decided to file a lawsuit. They're hoping for a court date later this month.

'The human rights process is an excellent one ... but there's a lot of time associated with it,' Dunbar said.

'There is nothing in the current Marriage Act that prohibits the Yukon government from issuing us a licence.'

In the written reply regarding the couple's marriage licence application, the government reiterated the stance it's already taken publicly that it's going to wait for the federal government to re-write the laws that prohibit same-sex marriage. That letter also suggested the Yukon doesn't have jurisdiction to start issuing the licences because it's a territory.

'It's so funny, a territory will often say, Oh no, we make our own decisions,' until, of course, it suits their political purpose to do otherwise,' said Dunbar, adding he finds that insulting to himself as a Yukoner.

Of all the provinces and territories, only British Columbia and Ontario currently issue marriage licences to gay couples after court decisions in those two provinces ruled last year that the federal Marriage Act definition of marriage as a strictly heterosexual union was a breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The federal government has said it will introduce legislation legalizing same-sex unions, but is having the Supreme Court of Canada go over the bill before bringing it forward.

The Yukon's Justice Minister, Elaine Taylor, has said the territory will first wait to go over that federal legislation and watch to see if it stands up to the country's top court before issuing marriage licences to gay couples.

'Yukoners should be offended that the Yukon government would even spend money fighting with us on this,' said Dunbar.

'Some would agree and some would support (fighting same-sex marriage), but the fact is that every court case that has gone before has sided that this is a clear violation.'