Lesbian woman seeking divorce asks Christian judge to recuse himself

A lesbian mother who is seeking a divorce from her husband has asked a Christian judge in Alabama to recuse himself from the case because of his personal views on homosexuality.

Tiara Brooke Lycans, an Alabama native who is seeking a divorce from her husband, Zachary Thomas Lycans, has filed two motions this year asking DeKalb Circuit Court Judge Shaunathan C. Bell to recuse himself from her case, but he denied her request both times. The denial of her requests prompted her to petition the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, which also rejected her plea on Thursday, AL.com reported.

In her request, Lycans pointed out that Bell had served as a preacher at a fundamentalist church for 15 years and that he continued to preach even after taking office as a judge.

The mother argued that the judge's "publicly expressed belief that homosexual relationships and marriages are contrary to God's law" could negatively affect her chances of winning custody of the child born to her marriage with Zachary.

The appeals court defended its decision to deny her request, saying Bell had granted the Lycans joint physical custody alternating weekly in his initial pending ruling on custody, and that he had done the same in two other divorce cases involving lesbian mothers.

According to Russia Today, Bell serves as a pastor at Liberty Hill Baptist Church in Alabama. Scriptures from the Bible were reportedly read aloud when he was sworn in as a judge on the Circuit Court in 2013.

Lycans' case comes several months after the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the suspension of former Chief Justice Roy Moore due to his stance on same-sex marriage.

Moore had been found guilty of ethics violations by the state Court of the Judiciary (COJ) over his 2016 memo regarding the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The memo stems from an order issued by six of nine Supreme Court judges in March 2015 that halted the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses in the state. Three months after the order was issued, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that states must recognize same-sex nuptials.

The Alabama court did not immediately lift the previous order, prompting Moore to issue a memo in January 2016, advising that the full court's previous instructions remained in effect until it issued directives in light of the Obefgefell v. Hodges ruling.

Moore, who was not one of the judges that issued the 2015 order, argued during his Sept. 2016 trial that he did not issue any orders, but only a status update as the Alabama Supreme Court had not rescinded the previous order. But the COJ did not believe the former chief justice and found him guilty on all ethics charges.

In April, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the COJ ruling and also concluded that the memo was more than just a status update