Closer to home
In DeKalb County, Ala., officials are not concretely making the call either way until there’s more clarification. “We are issuing licenses to heterosexual couples and taking application for same-sex marriages. We are not refusing anybody,” clerk Michelle Blake said Tuesday. Blake works in DeKalb County Probate Judge Ronnie Osborn’s office in Fort Payne. “We had a [same-sex] couple come in on Monday,” Blake said. “They filled out an application and we took their phone number and told them we would call them when we could issue a marriage license.” Blake said Osborn was awaiting more clarification from a “higher authority.” Next door in Jackson County, Probate Judge Victor Manning said that on Monday the office in Scottsboro issued licenses to heterosexual couples and applications to same-sex couples, but on Tuesday decided to simply issue applications to everyone. This morning, unless the Jackson County attorney gives some direction overnight, Manning might have to make another decision himself on how to proceed through the day, he said. “I think it’s pretty clear that in denying the same-sex marriages I think that’s leading down a dangerous road. And we still have this order in place from Chief Justice Moore. Nothing’s been recalled,” he said. “Right now, we’ll really doing nothing. If we change it, we’ll start selling to everybody.” Whatever happens, Manning hopes a final decision comes soon. “I hope something is resolved before Friday because Saturday is Valentine’s Day. Historically, there’s weddings on that day, so people are going to have to have a license to have a wedding on Saturday,” the judge said. – By Ben Benton, staff writer
MOBILE, Ala. — Same-sex marriage spread further 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.