Today's latest example involves a minister from Prattville, AL, who got arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for offering to perform a wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple who'd just received their marriage license. Probate Judge Al Booth had stopped all courthouse weddings and refused Anne Diprizio's offer to marry the couple. He told her to leave and she pressed the issue. So he had her arrested:
"I was trying to marry a nice couple and that wasn't going to happen today because Judge Booth explained that if he let one couple be married he would have to let everybody be married," Diprizio said. "So he was not going to allow us to have ceremony there and he had me arrested.Diprizio has vowed to return to the probate office in the future to help marry same-sex couples.
"I told him I wasn't going to leave on my own volition and I was very respectful. These are intimidation tactics and we have the federal government on our side. It's bad for Judge Booth because he is on the wrong side of history."
It should be noted that the lesbian couple was able to obtain marriage licenses at that probate office, but were unable to get married by the probate judge.
Diprizio says that she belongs to a non-denominational church, but declined to offer any details. It does seem to me that she has at least one other option available to her besides trying to marry same-sex couples at that probate office. She could hand out business cards and offer to officiate these weddings at her church or at some other location.