The LA Justice of Peace story shows the fight for marriage equality

won't stop with the legalization of same sex marriage. There will be a long fight for years to come after legalization as local officials try to express their "right" to not marry same sex couples. Inter-racial marriage has been legal for decades and this asshole still thinks he can block it.

it was one idiot who made the news largely because it was such a shock that anyone would do such a thing and he was almost immediately removed from his position.

That suggests that the fight is mostly over. You'll never get 100% of people to agree on anything, but the fact that the overwhelming response to this has been outrage suggests that particular battle can be considered won.

... how opposition to changing laws varies in different states ?

Here are the first two paragraphs from this Times story dated
September First.

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The battle to legalize gay marriage in Iowa may be over, but the war to keep it so is just beginning. Two supporters of same-sex marriage have gone to state authorities and filed a complaint against a group that helped outlaw same-sex marriage in California.

The issue revolves around an open state House seat and whether New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage broke state campaign laws by spending more than $86,000 in TV ads to support the GOP candidate. The complaint against NOM, as it is known, was filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

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The story suggests that using the word "asshole" seems like a bad idea when you're dealing with laws that vary according to the thousands of county and city governments in the United States. Interracial marriage was never guaranteed by federal legislation even though the rights of blacks to go to any stores they wanted was, in fact guaranteed by that.

an inter-racial couple claiming he had a right not to perform marriages he didn't agree with.