MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – On the same day Alabama voters passed an amendment banning same-sex marriage last month, a transgender woman and her female partner tied the knot legally in Chilton County – but only after being denied a marriage ceremony by a probate judge in another Alabama county.

“He said he only believed in marriage between a man and a woman,” said Janus Carson, who was born male but now appears female and considers herself a female.

Because Janus Carson is a biological male, who has not undergone a sex-change operation, the Chilton County probate judge saw no problem marrying Janus Carson to a female, Cheryjn Carson.

The mixed reception of the couple on June 6 – when Alabama voters emphatically banned same-sex marriages in the state constitution – depicts the uncertainty of marriage law when it comes to people who are transgender, a term for those who have changed their biological gender. It’s an uncertainty that extends beyond Alabama.

“A lot of states don’t have any specific laws so it certainly can be done on a case-by-case basis,” said Allison Neal, a law fellow of the American Civil Liberties Union in Alabama.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said for many years a transgender person had little difficulty getting married if the couple’s relationship was heterosexual.

“But in the last five years, transsexual people have started running into problems because of all of the controversy about same-sex couples getting married,” he said. “That has created a hostile environment that has spilled over to have a negative effect on transsexual people.”

That was the experience of Janus Carson, 47, and Cheryjn Carson, 39, who live at Titus in Elmore County, when they went to their home county probate judge, Jimmy Stubbs, to get married June 6. Janus Carson, who has not undergone a sex-change operation, said she showed Stubbs various documents, such as medical records and her driver’s license that describe her as male. She said this was proof she was a man biologically, but he still refused to marry them.

The couple, who met two and a half years ago in Montgomery, said they were asked embarrassing questions like how they had sex and what size Janus Carson’s breasts were.

“I felt dehumanized after I left the office,” Janus Carson said. “It just seemed very inappropriate to me.”

The couple then decided to try again in Chilton County.

“It was a rather emotionally distressing situation [in Elmore County] and we wanted to go ahead and take care of this situation so we wouldn’t have to live with that over our heads,” Cheryjn Carson said in a recent interview.

At Chilton County, they said Probate Judge Robert Martin was polite and performed the marriage ceremony.

“I showed him my driver’s license and birth certificate and he was fine with it,” Janus Carson said.

Martin said Janus Carson was dressed like a female and looked like one, but a few years earlier had sought a name change from Martin, who considered Janus Carson a male.

“I knew him from two to three years ago and he told me he had gender problems. The law says you can’t marry people of the same sex. Doesn’t say anything about sex identity problems,” he said.

Martin, who is vice president of the Alabama Association of Probate Judges, said that if Janus Carson had undergone a sex-change operation to become female, he would have viewed it as a same-sex marriage and would not have performed the ceremony. In any event, he said it was the first time he’d dealt with a transgender issue.

Stubbs said he felt it best not to perform the marriage ceremony because he didn’t understand Janus Carson’s condition.

“One of them said he had a male body and a female mind,” he said.

Stubbs admitted asking Janus Carson questions about her sex life and breasts, but denied the Carsons’ assertion that he sent a clerk to check on Janus Carson’s criminal record.

“That’s not correct because I had witnesses in here with me. I thought I was very respectable to them,” he said. Although no state has laws specifically about transgender marriage, most states have a statute or regulation that allows those who have been through sexual reassignment to order a new birth certificate indicating the new gender, according to Minter.

“Some transsexuals have assumed that means you can get a new certificate and get married,” he said. “But some states have gotten so paranoid about anything to do with same-sex couples getting married that they have taken a very irrational attitude about transsexual people.”

Minter said the Carsons’ case is interesting because most transgender marriage cases involve heterosexual couples, while the Carsons are in a same-sex relationship.

Although the Carson’s marriage was refused in one county and performed in another, transgender marriages are not usually dealt with that way, according to Minter.

“The courts are supposed to follow the law and it’s supposed to be the same rule for everyone,” he said. “The rule is if you have a complete sexual reassignment you will be recognized as the new sex for legal purposes.”

Janus Carson, who is a security guard, said most of her co-workers, who view her as a woman, don’t know she is a transgender female. She said her employer knows and is understanding.

Cheryjn Carson said they haven’t come across much prejudice in their rural town.

“Most folks are very understanding,” she said. “My family is from up North and when they found out about Janus and I, they insisted I leave Alabama and come up there so they can protect us.”

But Cheryjn Carson said she didn’t want to leave her life in Alabama behind.

“We decided to stay and fight the bigotry and try to show people we’re a family like everybody else,” she said.