A Third Lawsuit Challenges Alabama's Marriage Ban

A lawsuit was filed Tuesday challenging Alabama's 1998 law and 2006 constitutional amendment denying marriage rights to same-sex couples.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of Birmingham couple April and Ginger Aaron-Brush. The two married in Massachusetts in 2012, and they are raising a 7-year-old daughter, reports the Montgomery Advertiser. Theirs is the third case to challenge the marriage laws in Alabama.

"Over the last 17 years our relationship has evolved and continues to change as our lives grow with each other," Ginger Aaron-Brush wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "Our love continues to deepen and become more fulfilling. We balance each other. I am silly and impulsive. April is grounded and confident. We are raising a child together with love and through love -- instilling in her respect for herself and respect for all people."

Under Alabama law, only April Aaron-Brush can be the legal parent of their child, who was adopted as an infant. Still, the couple told the Advertiser that their family is accepted by their daughter's school and classmates.

Alabama attorney general Luther Strange issued a statement saying he would fight the suit. "As attorney general, I will vigorously defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman," Strange said, according to the Advertiser. "That has been the definition of marriage for the history of western civilization, and Alabamians overwhelmingly voted to incorporate it into our laws."

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham.