Alabama Official Ordered to Issue Marriage Licenses to Homosexual Couples
Photo Credit: IB Times By Reuters. A federal judge on Thursday ordered an Alabama official to comply with her earlier ruling striking down the state’s ban on same-sex matrimony and start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, while advocates said couples in most counties were still unable to obtain licenses.
U.S. District Judge Callie Granade’s order clarified that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis should follow her directive despite a contravening order from Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore that led many state judges to refrain from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
The ruling marked the latest twist in the controversy over gay marriage in Alabama, where probate judges have faced conflicting orders from federal and state courts. The resulting disarray has allowed some same-sex couples to marry in places such as Birmingham, while those applying for marriage licenses in dozens of counties were turned away.
Granade’s order applied specifically to Mobile County, where, within an hour of the ruling, same-sex couples who had been waiting in line at a county building began to receive licenses.
Judges in the other 43 of Alabama’s 67 counties that have refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples did not immediately begin issuing them in the wake of Granade’s order, advocates said. (Read more from ‘Alabama Official Ordered to Issue Marriage Licenses HERE)
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Here’s What Your State’s View of Homosexual Marriage Is
By Victoria Taft. A new survey shows American tolerance or support of same-sex marriage has increased a whopping 21% between 2003 and 2013.
The Public Religion Research Institute, which routinely polls issues pertaining to abortion and LGBT issues, says the differences are stark from one decade to the next . . .
Here’s what your state’s voters think about same-sex marriage.
(Read more from this story HERE)
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