News (USA)

Alabama judge grants divorce to gay couple amid halt to same-sex marriages

Alabama judge grants divorce to gay couple amid halt to same-sex marriages

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A judge in Alabama granted a divorce to a same-sex couple a year after denying the same request.

Judge Karen Hall
Judge Karen Hall

Local media report Madison County Circuit Judge Karen Hall on Thursday certified the divorce of Shrie Michelle Richmond and Kirsten Allysse Richmond.

The couple married in Iowa in 2012 and filed for a divorce last March. Hall had ruled at the time that she didn’t have the power to grant the divorce because Alabama’s laws didn’t recognize same-sex marriage.

Court records show the couple again filed for divorce Feb. 9, the day a federal judge’s ruling striking down the state’s ban on gay marriage took effect.

The Alabama Supreme Court last week halted same-sex marriages again.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legality of same-sex marriages in June.

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