A year after she rejected a request to
divorce from two women who were legally married in Iowa, an Alabama
judge this week allowed the pair to end their marriage.
Madison County Circuit Judge Karen Hall
on Thursday granted a divorce sought by Shrie Michelle Richmond and
Kirsten Allysse Richmond.
The women married in Dubuque, Iowa in
2012, roughly three years after Iowa legalized marriage for gay
couples.
Citing “incompatibility of
temperament,” they asked for the divorce on February 9, the day a
federal judge struck down the state's constitutional amendment
limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. A conflicting ruling by
the state's highest court has since put such unions on hold in
Alabama.
Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights
advocate, applauded the ruling.
“The [Alabama] court is absolutely
correct in determining it is bound by the federal decision,”
Warbelow told the
AP.