Earlier this year, I reported on an
Alabama minister who tried to marry a same-sex couple in Alabama after they had gotten a marriage license at a county court house (Autauga County). She was at first sentenced to thirty days in the county jail. And, then the judge suspended the sentence and gave her 6 months unsupervised probation. Judge Fuller also ordered her to pay a $250 fine and other associated court costs. I don't see any of the anti-gay folks protesting because she was denied her "religious liberty" and prevented from practicing her religion. Have they set up a GoFundMe account for this minister? Nope.
From The Montgomery Advertiser:
Anne Susan DiPrizio, 44, of the 300 block of Cambridge Street, entered the plea before Judge Ben Fuller, but not before some delays and judicial wrangling. He gave her 30 days in the Autauga Metro Jail, and then suspended the sentence in place of 6 months unsupervised probation. Fuller also ordered her to pay a $250 fine and other associated court costs.
From
Box Turtle Bulletin:
A minister in Prattville, AL, has been fined and sentenced to jail time for trying to uphold religious beliefs about same-sex marriage. But neither the Alliance Defending Freedom nor the Family Research Counsel nor any other defender of religious freedom has come to her aid or spoke in her defense.
Unitarian Universalists have a long history of social justice activism, and Anne Susan DiPrizio, as a Unitarian minister, believed it to be within the practice of her faith to offer matrimony services to two women who had just received a marriage license. When told that she could not conduct same-sex marriages in the Probate Office, DiPrizio refused to leave. So she was hauled to jail.
I’m not suggesting that DiPrizio should have defied the probate judge or sought to perform religious services where they were not allowed or welcomed. But it’s worth noting that amidst all the hue and cry turning cake bakers into martyrs in the name of religious freedom, here is an actual ordained minister who was jailed and fined for seeking to practice her faith and support same-sex marriage.
Update 1:
For those who have not been following this story, that courthouse was allowing marriage ceremonies right up until the time the federal judge struck down the ban(s) in the state. It was only then that the judge suddenly stopped allowing them.