WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Alabama on Wednesday ordered a state to allow same-sex couples to name their children after Alabama’s famous “birthers” who fought President Barack Obama for years to prevent the country from recognizing their marriages.
In a ruling that is expected to set a precedent in the state, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. O’Toole of Montgomery ordered Alabama to allow gay and lesbian couples to use the names of their spouses to describe children.
O’Tooles order came less than two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in June that states could ban same-gender marriages in all but five states.
The court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, violates the U.K. Constitution.
The ruling comes a year after the U,S.
Supreme Court allowed same-day marriage in states across the country.
The Alabama case stems from a lawsuit filed in 2009 by a lesbian couple in the Southern state that sought to change the names on their children’s birth certificates to reflect their relationship to each other.
A ruling is expected next week.
