Same-sex marriage spread farther across Alabama on Tuesday as more courthouses issued licenses to gays and lesbians, yet some counties still defied a federal judge’s order, so couples took their fight back to court.
The dispute and confusion headed toward a showdown in federal court set for Thursday in Mobile, where gay couples have waited for two days in a courthouse after officials quit issuing marriage licenses altogether — even for heterosexual couples — rather than sell them to same-sex couples.
Jim Strawser and his partner John Humphrey sat outside the shuttered marriage license window at the Mobile County courthouse.
“Come on, you’ve got a federal court order. Open those windows,” Strawser said to no avail.
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The governor noted that Alabama is about to be in the spotlight again with the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was passed after civil rights marchers were attacked and beaten in Selma, Alabama — events chronicled in the Oscar-nominated movie “Selma.”
“I don’t want Alabama to be seen as it was 50 years ago when a federal law was defied. I’m not going to do that,” Bentley said. “I’m trying to move this state forward.”
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Reeves reported from Birmingham.
