An Alabama minister has been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct because she would not leave a probate judge's office where she was trying to officiate a wedding for two women.
Anne Susan Diprizio, a nondenominational ordained minister, was arrested Monday and charged Tuesday after she refused to vacate the office of Autauga County Probate Judge Al Booth in Prattville, Ala., where she was trying to perform a wedding for Courtney Cannon and Morgan Plunkett. Diprizio was arrested and held on $1,000 bond, according to the Montgomery Advertiser -- and after posting bail, she went back to the probate office in an unsuccessful attempt to see Booth and "let him know that I will be back ... I will offer to perform marriage ceremonies again."
Diprizio reportedly did not know the two women who were at the probate office to get married, but she offered to officiate for them. The two told the Advertiser that they didn't have any trouble getting a marriage license, but they had not realized that the Autauga County Probate Office had ceased offering marriage ceremonies for betrothed couples, same-sex and opposite-sex alike.
Booth, the judge, has said the change was made because of "work flow," the Advertiser reports -- but the timing obviously raises questions. The recent toppling of the state's ban on same-sex marriage took effect this week, and some counties have refused to comply with U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade's order to issue licenses to same-sex couples. Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore claims county probate judges, who are in charge of marriage licenses, don't have to obey Granade's order.
It's clear that Diprizio isn't buying the "work flow" excuse.
"I was trying to marry a nice couple and that wasn't going to happen today," she told the Advertiser this week. "Judge Booth explained that if he let one couple be married, he would have to let everybody be married ... and he had me arrested. ... These are intimidation tactics ... he's on the wrong side of history. ...
"I would love to represent Alabama ... so that when they make fun of Alabama, like they always do, they can say there was at least one person who was on the right side of the law, the federal law ;.. it's about love winning, and today love wins."
Watch video of the Advertiser's interview with Diprizio on the following page...