The aluminum window shades rolled up at 4:06 p.m. Thursday at the Mobile County Probate Office and Milton Persinger and Robert Povilat got married.



"It was a just decision and it was long coming, but I'm grateful here and I think it's a victory for civil rights everywhere," said Persinger, 47. "This is going to be a helpful tool for all the other people, gay and lesbian, that want to be legally married, that want to get their chance in the sun."



The couple became the first same-sex couple to get married in Mobile, capping a legal roller coaster that ended when a federal judge ordered Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis to start granting marriage licenses to same sex couples. The Baldwin County Probate Office followed suit.



Davis had kept the marriage license office closed since Monday, when U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. "Ginny" Granade ruling striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage was to go into effect.



He is one of dozens of probate judges who cited Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore's administrative order on Sunday instructing probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.



Christina Hernandez, an attorney who challenged Davis' action on behalf of the plaintiffs, said that "marriages are going to be everywhere," in light of the ruling.



"Equality is here," she said.



Cheers rang out in the probate office and couples began to cry when word spread that Granade clarified once again that same-sex marriage was the rule of law. With pens in hand, couples filled out the paperwork for the marriage licenses about a half hour later.



Tim Jay, 42, had waited 18 years for that moment. He was there to marry his partner Marc Stewart, 43.



"Alabama has always had to be dragged into history," Jay said. "We love our state and we knew it was going to happen."



Rev. Sandy O'Steen, Cornerstone Metropolitan Community Church pastor, performed wedding ceremonies inside the atrium of Mobile Government Plaza while an onlooker blew bubbles in celebration.

"We've been doing holy unions for 20 years and we've always prayed that it would be legal," said Sandy O'Steen, a lesbian.

She told John Humphrey and James Strawser, plaintiffs in Thursday's legal challenge, that they were not alone in their new lives together.



"This is a change not just for you, but for all gay people in Alabama," O'Steen said.

But not everyone was on board. Two same sex marriage protesters waved a sign and yelled at the newly married couples from across the street.



Persinger, walking with his new husband, took it in stride. He held up his marriage license into the sunlight and smiled.