Many Ala. Counties Refuse to Issue Gay-Marriage Licenses
On a day where sadness, confusion and joy blended, same-sex couples went to get marriage licenses Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama’s request to stop them.
Some were successful. Others found themselves caught in a legal fight between the federal courts and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who ordered probate judges Sunday not to issue licenses in defiance of a federal judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriages.
Judge Alan King of Jefferson County Probate Court in Birmingham issued the first license to two women, making Alabama the 37th state where gays legally can wed. He then proceeded to issue several more licenses.
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