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Lawsuit Challenges Alabama Policy on Same-Sex Marriage

Alabama Public Radio | By Associated Press
Published February 14, 2014 at 5:00 AM CST
A judge says two women who were legally married in Iowa can't divorce in Alabama, which doesn't recognize same-sex marriages.
Jewel Samad
/
AFP/Getty Images
A judge says two women who were legally married in Iowa can't divorce in Alabama, which doesn't recognize same-sex marriages.

A gay man whose husband was killed in a car accident is filing a federal lawsuit challenging the Alabama laws that prohibit the recognition of his marriage, which was legally performed in Massachusetts. The lawsuit in Montgomery federal court seeks to overturn Alabama's bans on the recognition of same-sex marriages legally performed in other states. Plaintiff Paul Hard and David Fancher, both of Montgomery, were married in 2011. Three months later, Fancher was killed in a car accident. Hard says hospital staff initially refused to speak with him, and Fancher's death certificate says he died unmarried. Hard is also not recognized as the surviving spouse in a wrongful death lawsuit.
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Politics & Government gay marriagesame-sex marriageDefense of Marriage Act
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