HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- A same-sex couple who married in Iowa in 2012 has filed for divorce in Alabama, creating a potentially complex court challenge in a state that does not recognize same-sex marriage.

The petition filed with the Madison County Circuit Clerk seeks to dissolve the marriage of Shrie Michelle Richmond and Kirsten Allysse Richmond. According to the recorder's office in Dubuque, Iowa, the couple married in Dubuque on Nov. 2, 2012.

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa in 2009. But Alabama is not one of the 17 states that recognize the marriages as valid.

And that leaves the couple without an easy way to untie the knot.

Shrie Richmond's attorney Patrick Hill said the problem for the couple is that most states have a residency requirement in order to grant a divorce. For example, the couple would have to leave Alabama and establish residency in Iowa for one year to be granted a divorce there.

"When she first came to me, to ask what options were, she had no idea," Hill said. "She didn't know she could not just go down to the courthouse and file for a divorce and she had no idea about Iowa's residency requirement.

"We've explored options on this case for almost a year before filing."

Alabama passed the "Alabama Marriage Protection Act" in 1998 which pointedly rejects same-sex marriage. The law says "marriage is inherently a unique relationship between a man and a woman."

It goes on to say the state "shall not recognize as valid any marriage of parties of the same sex that occurred or was alleged to have occurred as a result of the law of any jurisdiction regardless of whether a marriage license was issued."

The divorce petition filed by the Richmonds says they are bona fide residents of Madison and Morgan counties for six months - Alabama has a six-month residency requirement for divorce. The filing contends the women have become incompatible and there is no chance of reconciliation.

While it is an uncontested divorce, simply needing a divorce decree from a judge, Hill said the state's computer court filing system prevented him from filing electronically for the divorce.

The Alafile computer system would not allow it," Hill said. "It accepted all the information I input, but there is a box on it you have to check that designates whether the party is male or female.

"I designated both parties as female - it said the plaintiff and defendant could not be the same gender."

Last month a Montgomery man filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Alabama's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. The lawsuit challenges the "Marriage Protection Act" and Alabama's "Sanctity of Marriage Amendment," which was passed in a statewide referendum in 2006. The amendment received more than 80 percent of the nearly 860,000 votes cast.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is representing Paul Hard in his lawsuit to overturn the state marriage ban, said Alabama needs to change its laws concerning same-sex couples.

"Alabama law treats LGBT citizens as if we don't exist," said David Dinielli deputy legal director for the SPLC. "The state's failure to recognize same-sex marriages, including when they end because of death or divorce, is an example of the state's efforts to demean us and our lives. We and many others are working to fix this so that LGBT Alabamians can live their lives in safety and dignity, without leaving the state they proudly call home."

As same-sex marriage proponents have been successful in the courts in recent years, attitudes in Alabama and across the U.S. seem to be shifting.

Last year, the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee blocked an effort to silence a college Republican who was critical of the party's staunch opposition to same-sex marriage. And a new poll by the Pew Research Center found that some 61 of young, self-identified conservatives favor same-sex marriage.

But state leaders show no signs of wavering on the issue.

Last month, in response to the filing of the lawsuit challenging Alabama's marriage ban, a spokeswoman for Gov. Robert Bentley said he would fight the lawsuit and strongly believes in the traditional definition of marriage. House Speaker Mike Hubbard showed no signs of softening on the issue, calling the lawsuit "part of a coordinated liberal agenda that is designed to erode the conservative Alabama values that the citizens of our state hold close to their hearts."