On Sept. 30, Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, was suspended for the remainder of his term. According to the New York Times, Judge Moore was suspended for violating Alabama’s judicial ethics, specifically by instructing Alabama’s probate judges to ignore the federal Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality. Judge Moore denies these charges, saying he never instructed probate judges in this manner. His suspension is pending an immediate appeal.

In July of 2015, AL.com reported that at least nine Alabama counties refused to issue marriage licenses to any couples, regardless of sexuality, as a form of protest against the June 2015 Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage. By January of 2016, as many as 15 counties in Alabama refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, according to The Advocate.

In light of the lack of enforcement of federal law, members of the University’s LGBTQ+ community feel that the state of Alabama lags behind the rest of the country on issues of marriage and general equality.

“So, basically, what we talked about and what we kind of focused on is that a right without access isn’t really a right,” said Joanna Urli, a senior majoring in biology and a member of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity. “So even people in Alabama who legally, technically, right now could be married can’t actually due to social stigmas as well as the government’s view. It’s very discouraging for people looking to get marriage licenses.”

URGE noted that addressing issues of gay rights in a “more conservative” state is a monumental challenge.

“I think that marriage equality is really just one step in the movement for queer rights,” Urli said. “So I do think that by people becoming more socially aware of queer people and different identities and being more conscious of those, I think that it would help the social situation around being queer, and I think that that would help improve the state of marriage as well.”

But Urli also said she thinks that cultural change can and will impact the realm of politics.

“I think that people are less likely to feel like it’s those people over there that they don’t know, that don’t exist, that are these horrible people, when that idea kind of fades away I think that marriage equality could really improve,” she said.