According to newly released state data, 715 same-sex couples married in 2017. The number reveal a divide between urban and rural Alabama as eight counties - most of them southern, rural and Republican - continue to dodge the issue by staying out of the marriage business altogether.
Jefferson County, the state’s most populous area, married the most last year, issuing 163 licenses for same-sex couples in 2017, according to the Alabama Center for Health Statistics. Jefferson County Probate Judge King says his office issues marriage licenses to citizens outside of the county weekly because their home counties have shuttered their marriage licenses offices.
"Every probate judge in Alabama ran for their job knowing issuing marriage licenses was part of their job," King said. "Quite frankly, you have probate judges who shirked their duties all over this state and they have allowed their personal beliefs to affect their jobs responsibilities.”
On Feb. 9, 2015, a federal judge in Mobile struck down the states same-sex marriage ban. Then-Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore commanded probate judges not to issue the licenses a few weeks after. Many probate offices stopped issuing licenses for all couples in response to Moore’s order, which ultimately led to his suspension in September 2016.
Alabama probate judges presiding over Autauga, Clarke, Cleburne, Covington, Elmore, Geneva, Pike and Washington counties are still not issuing marriage licenses. Those counties continue to rely on a section of Alabama law stating probate judges "may" issue marriage licenses, not "shall" issue.
“If they don’t want to issue marriage licenses, which includes same-sex marriage licenses, then don’t run for the job or resign from the job and give up the job and instead allow someone to be appointed or run for the opposition who will do the job,” said King.
Since 2015, Alabama has reported 3,046 same-sex marriages. That’s 1,392 in 2015, and then 939 in 2016. Data for 2018 is not available yet.
Elizabeth Richardson, right, poses with her wife Amanda McDonald, left, during their wedding day on March 1, 2017. Below is Richardson's 8-year-old son, Lee.
Elmore County Probate Judge John Enslen was one of the loudest opponents of same-sex marriage. He said he would rather go to jail than perform a same-sex marriage and demanded then-Gov. Robert Bentley to make an order halting the issuance of gay marriage licenses. Enslen did not return phone Al.com’s calls or emails for comment for this story.
As a result of Enslen’s position, Elizabeth Richardson knew she wasn't going to be able to marry her girlfriend in her hometown in Elmore County. So Richardson married her wife in Montgomery on March 1, 2017.
"It was very common knowledge that if you were to go out there, you would get turned away or there was going to be an altercation," Richardson said of Elmore.
Montgomery County, the fourth most populous county in the state and near three of the counties not issuing licenses, placed second in the state with 91 same-sex marriages in 2017. The county also had the most same-sex marriages per capita. Madison County in north Alabama came in third with 77 followed by Mobile County with 73. Baldwin County on the coast had the fifth-highest amount with 44.
Although she lives in Montgomery, Richardson still visits her home county where her family lives. She still notices the stares she receives while she's holding her wife's hand. She said a man in grocery store once shouted the word "dyke", which is a slur used against the lesbian community. Richardson said it was hard explaining what the word meant to their youngest family member, who was seven at the time.
"That's the day we had to explain that word to our son," said Richardson, who has a child from a previous marriage. "We told him it was bad word like any cuss word, that they meant it to be mean and he wasn't allowed to say it. They said it because mommy and Amanda are together, and some people don't like that."
Defining the slur to her son was only one part of the unsettling moment, Richardson said. The man who used the slur had a young boy with him.
"Homophobia, racism, discrimination in general is taught. Children don't come out hating people. It is what the world is teaching them -- what we teach them -- that forms the way they look at the world," Richardson said. "It's so important that we try to break the cycle. If we can teach people to empathize, be kind to one another and to look for things that are the same instead of our differences, Alabama can be a better place."
The data for Alabama mostly reflects a general split between rural and urban areas, a divide mirrored in recent election results, such as last year’s special election for the U.S. Senate, when Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore. Jones won four of the five counties with the most same-sex marriages last year. Moore claimed seven of the eight counties refusing to issue marriage licenses at all.
There are also many rural counties, like Sumter, Wilcox, and Perry, that did not record any same-sex marriages in 2017 despite issuing marriage licenses.
King said there have been times when he disagreed with the law during his almost 18 years as judge but hasn't allowed his belief to change his actions.
“If they want to stand behind that code section, that’s up to them. I disagree with that. I disagree with that whole approach,” King said. “A lot of times on the judicial side, I may not agree with how the law is written, but I follow the law and that’s what judges do. Either someone is a judge and follows the law, or they ought to go do something else.”