Federal Judge in Alabama: Marriage Equality Must Begin in Every County. Now.

Across the South, most counties are moving forward with marriage equality

Washington, D.C. - July 1, 2015 – Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, put the spotlight on a new and crystal-clear order from Judge Callie V.S. Granade, a federal judge in Alabama, declaring in a matter argued by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) that all probate judges in the state must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples immediately.

"This order is crystal clear, and it should remove the cotton that Chief Justice Roy Moore has been stuffing in probate judges' ears across this state," said HRC Alabama director Patricia Todd. "Marriage equality must begin everywhere, and couples who have been waiting, in many cases, two or three decades to get married shouldn't have to wait a minute longer."

The order reflected broader progress to implement the Supreme Court's landmark marriage equality ruling across the South.

In Louisiana, an interactive map compiled by The Advocate found that the vast majority of parishes are issuing marriage licenses to committed and loving same-sex couples, despite some suggestions that early comments by Governor Bobby Jindal and Attorney General Buddy Caldwell would lead to mass resistance to the ruling.

In Mississippi, the state's attorney general last night filed a request with the 5th Circuit, asking to formally stop defending the state's unconstitutional ban on marriage equality. Meanwhile, a map compiled by the organization Unity Mississippi found that the vast majority of counties across the state are issuing licenses to same-sex couples.

Finally, in Texas, a Monday count by the Dallas Morning News found that 114 counties in the state had begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, since that report was published, some counties that had previously not been issuing licenses have already begun to comply with the law.

HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow released the following statement in light of this progress:

"Despite the best efforts of doom-sayers and obstructionists, there is no mass movement to obstruct the implementation of the Supreme Court's sweeping ruling on marriage equality. We will continue to monitor challenges wherever they emerge, but it's clear today that most Americans in all 50 states are willing and happy to celebrate and support the constitutional rights of their LGBT neighbors."

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.