Alabama gay marriage
Alabama gay marriage begins in some counties
Judges in some counties in Alabama contain begun issuing marriage licences to gay couples, despite the state's top determine ordering them not to.
Chief Justice Roy Moore said judges were not bound by a federal decree lifting the state's male lover marriage ban.
But many counties began marrying couples after the US Supreme Court refused to put marriages on hold.
It means Alabama becomes the 37th US state to legalise queer marriage, ahead of a nationwide ruling this year.
But local media reports suggested that at least 11 of Alabama's 67 counties refused to issue marriage licences.
Judge Moore has been one of the state's most outspoken critics of gay marriage. He called homosexuality an "inherent evil'' in a 2002 custody ruling against a lesbian mother.
But on Monday morning, the high court's ruling meant he was powerless to stop it.
In Birmingham, one of the first licences went to Dee and Laura Bush, who have been together for seven years and have five children between them.
They wed in a park outside the courthouse where a minister was performing ceremonies.
"It is great that we were a
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Alabama Supreme Court has made itself an outlier in the judicial march legalizing same-sex marriages in the United States, drawing rebukes from gay rights advocates and evoking comparisons to Alabama's defiance of federal authorities during the civil rights movement.
The court put up a showdown with a Mobile, Alabama, federal judge this week when it ordered officials in the state to cease issuing same-sex marriage licenses pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision later this year on whether gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marry.
The Alabama ruling contradicts U.S. District Judge Callie "Ginny" Granade, who declared in January that Alabama's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage viola
tes the U.S. Constitution.
"Even as nationwide marriage equality is on the horizon, the Alabama Supreme Court is determined to be on the wrong side of history," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Alabama wasn't the first state where a federal trial or appeals court declared same-sex marriages legal, but the express justices made Alabama the only state to urge back in advance of the U.S. Supreme Court settling the m
Most Alabama Counties Defy Feds by Blocking Gay Marriage
— -- At least 51 of 67 Alabama counties were not issuing marriage licenses to queer couples today in defiance of a federal verdict to do so, according to an ABC News count.
Among the Alabamans affected today were Joe Baker and Russell Wilson, who said their excitement turned to disappointment as they headed to the Mobile, Alabama, courthouse to earn a marriage license and found the office window closed.
"We thought the windows were going to reveal at 8 [a.m.]," Baker said. "They just [kept] delaying it and delaying it."
Instead of signing marriage licenses, Baker and Wilson gathered with several other same-sex couples today in a law office to file new petitions.
"No windows open. No marriage license," Wilson said. "We waited 33 years for this. ... It's a huge disappointment."
It was a chaotic day for same-sex couples as a U.S. Supreme Court decision made Alabama the 37th state today to allow same-sex marriages. On Sunday night, a state chief justice ordered county judges to disallow the licenses and today Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said he was "disappointed&quo
Alabama lawmakers pass workaround bill on same-sex marriage
After some conservative Alabama probate judges stopped issuing marriage licenses over the issue of same-sex marriage, state lawmakers have come up with a workaround: marriage certificates that don't have to be signed before the wedding by the judge.
The bill, which won concluding approval Thursday, now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature.
For several years a few conservative probate judges in Alabama have refused to issue marriage licenses to anyone so they don't include to issue them to gay and lesbian couples.
The House of Representatives voted 67-26 for the bill that would replace marriage licenses with a modern form called a marriage certificate.
Republican Sen. Greg Albritton, the sponsor of the bill, said he proposed the change so people can obtain marriage documents in every county.
Rep. Neil Rafferty, the only openly gay member of the House, said the invitation was "born out of prejudice."
"It accommodates a handful of judges that couldn't get their personal feelings, couldn't check them those at the door and couldn't do their jobs," Rafferty, D-Birmingham, said.
Current Alabama law says probate judges "may" issu
.