Roy Exum: The New Hearts In Dixie

  • Tuesday, February 10, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Not since Gov. George Wallace made world news in a vain attempt to block two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama has the “The Heart of Dixie” been in as much turmoil as was evidenced Monday. Alabama became the 37th state where same-sex marriages can be performed legally yesterday. About two dozen couples were formally wed and another 4.8 million – the state’s population – had a rather firm opinion about it one way or the other.

But the circus was just getting started. On Sunday morning Governor Robert Bentley attended weekly services at his home church, First Baptist in Tuscaloosa, to hear his preacher demand from the pulpit that the governor “do the right thing” and stop gay marriages from taking place. But a federal judge in Mobile ruled the state’s ban on such unions was unconstitutional and an appeals court in Atlanta refused the state’s request for a delay.
By nightfall Sunday the state’s chief justice, Roy Moore, ordered all the state’s probate judges to ignore the federal order and continue to enforce the ban. Judge Moore even said Governor Bentley could impeach any judge that issued a same-sex license. (On Monday Bentley said no such action would be taken.)
One thing was certain: As the sun rose on “The Heart of Dixie” yesterday, there was considerable havoc. As some same-sex couples were turned down at some courthouses, the couples raced to other counties where the federal law was upheld and licenses were given. At least 26 of the state’s 67 counties refused to issue licenses but elsewhere marriage ceremonies were still performed
In Jackson County (Scottsboro) applications were being taken but no licenses were issued and, for once, the counties that hold the University of Alabama and Auburn were unified – neither issuing applications or licenses, this as Judge Moore insisted the federal court had overstepped its authority.
“The U.S. district courts have no power or authority to redefine marriage,” he told NBC News. “Once you start redefining marriage, that’s the ultimate power. Would it overturn the laws of incest? Bigamy? Polygamy? How far do they go? A lot of states have caved to such unlawful authority, and this is not one. This is Alabama. We don’t give up the recognition that law has bounds.”
Fred Hamic, the probate judge in Geneva County (west of Dothan), was even more outspoken. “I’m not going to be party to it. I was raised in a Christian home and was taught it is a sin.”
Washington County judge Nick Williams said he would not issue same–sex marriage licenses and freely added, “I'm not worried about following the U.S. Constitution.”
In Wetumpka, Elmore County judge John Enslen said he would issue licenses but, from this moment forward, he’ll perform no more weddings. In January he wrote a guest editorial and declared same-sex unions “repugnant and repulsive to God. In other words, I believe Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for such conduct between the same sexes.”
Protests were staged at every courthouse across the state. Anniston’s Dori Ruboff, and her partner of 20 years were married as protesters swapped barbs outside the Jacksonville courthouse. One held a sign that read, “I may be straight, but I'm not narrow. Be an ally!" while his wife’s sign said, "I'm an Atheist, my marriage is valid! Why isn't theirs?" Across the way came the yell, “Repent!”
But in Huntsville, Baptist minister Ellin Jemmerson gladly became one of the first pastors in the state to preside over the vows of two women yesterday morning. Rev. Jemmerson, also a female, was at total peace with the service.
“One of the issues for many is whether same-sex marriages comport with biblical ideas of marriages. The truth is that people in the 21st century would not be comfortable with the kinds of marriages which are represented in the Bible,” she wrote in her blog.
“For example, we would not be comfortable with the biblical model that is one man, one woman, one concubine. Nor would we be comfortable with the idea of a widow being compelled to marry her brother-in-law. There is very little in the Bible which reflects the modern idea of one man and one woman united by love. That is where we have been comfortable for a long time now.
“Today, we are being asked to move even further down the road of marriages being based on love,” she continued. “We are being asked to expand our ideas to include one man and another man united in marriage by love. Of one woman and another woman united by love.
“It was not too many years ago that we in Alabama at last understood that the long-held ban on interracial marriages was hurtful and wrong. We moved further down the road of love. Now, most of us think nothing of interracial marriages.
“On Monday, Feb. 9, the state of Alabama will move as a people even further down the road of love as the only legitimate basis for marriage. We as a people will recognize that God truly does love us all.”
* * *
As same-sex marriages became legal, so did divorce. Michelle Richmond and Kirsten Richmond, who were married in Iowa in 2012, applied for a divorce in Huntsville and, while the electronic forms wouldn’t accept two women, their attorney used a paper form. They had waited a year for the law to change.
* * *
Two women from Vestavia Hills, Ginger and April Aaron-Brush, were finally able to go to the Birmingham courthouse, where Ginger began the process of adopting April’s daughter. April had adopted the child as a newborn eight years ago. The Aaron-Brushes were married in Massachusetts two years ago.
CORRECTION – Harry Medved of Fandango, the ticket hub, said Monday that there are some tickets available to this week’s opening of the movie “50 Shades of Grey.” A weekend news release stated that there are hundreds of sell-outs “in cities ranging from Tupelo, MS, Florence, KY and Chattanooga, TN to San Diego, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York” but Medved said there are some tickets still available in Chattanooga for certain showtimes.

 
 
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