Same-Sex Marriage Supporters Take Battle to Southern States

Requesting marriage licenses for publicity efforts

Same-sex couples across the South have taken the fight for marriage equality directly to the people enforcing the laws.

At clerk's offices and registrar's desks, couples working with the Southern Campaign for Equality are asking for marriage licenses, knowing they will be denied. The efforts — staged in seven Southern states this month — have touched some and angered others.

"The message you get in the South is that it's not safe to be completely out as a gay person," said the Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Southern Campaign for Equality. "The action is intended to shine a light on what happens when a discriminatory law is enforced and how that impacts real people in their hometowns."