Alabama Minister Arrested After Offering To Perform Same-Sex Wedding

Sheriffs have arrested an Alabama minister after she offered to officiate a wedding for a same-sex couple in a probate judge’s office.

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A same-sex couple who went to the Autauga County courthouse in Alabama to marry say an ordained minister who offered to officiate their wedding ceremony was arrested after refusing to leave the probate judge’s office. 

Courtney Cannon and Morgan Plunkett (photo), together three and a half years, say they received a marriage license from a “very nice” clerk.

They were surprised when the situation began to “blow up.”

“I don’t even know her name, but she said she was an ordained minister and wanted to marry us,” Cannon told a Montgomery Advertiser reporter on camera. “She was standing up for our rights to get married. Judge Booth called the deputies after he told her to leave.”

“Judge Booth said there was a lady in the office who wouldn’t leave when he asked her to leave,” Autauga County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy Dave Hill said.

The reporter told them this particular county was not marrying people, which they say they did not know. It seems the judge, in addition to refusing to marry anyone, is refusing to allow anyone to marry in his office, regardless of who officiates. The Autauga County probate judge’s office stopped performing all weddings on Friday, they say, due to workflow issues.

Anne Susan Diprizio was charged with disorderly conduct. 

“I didn’t think it would blow up like this,” Courtney Cannon said. “We just wanted to get a marriage license. We weren’t thinking of getting married in the probate office until she offered to perform the ceremony.”

“I don’t think she deserves to be arrested,” Cannon added. “They say they have stopped all marriages at the probate office. But I guarantee if a heterosexual couple went in there they would marry them in a heartbeat.”

 

Image: Screenshot via Montgomery Advertiser