Two Alabama women have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force the state to recognize their out-of-state marriage so they can both be legal parents to their 8-year-old son.
The suit filed Wednesday contends that Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage and its refusal to recognize such marriages from other states violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs, Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand, have been a couple for more than 14 years and have lived in Mobile since 2001. They traveled to California in 2008 to be married.
McKeand gave birth to a son in 2005 who was conceived with the help of a sperm donor. The couple's efforts to have Searcy declared Khaya's adoptive parent were rebuffed in the state court system.