A lesbian mother in Alabama has asked a Christian judge in DeKalb Circuit Court to recuse himself from her divorce case because of his stance against homosexuality.

Tiara Brooke Lycans, in her divorce case against husband Zachary Thomas Lycans, filed two motions earlier this year asking trial Judge Shaunathan C. Bell to recuse himself from the case. Bell declined to recuse himself both times.

Tiara Lycans then petitioned the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, which on Thursday also denied her request for recusal.

She has argued in her requests for recusal that Bell has for 15 years been a preacher at a fundamentalist church and continued to serve as a preacher even after taking office as a judge.

In his campaign materials, Bell listed his political views as "conservative" and his religious views as "Baptist."

Tiara Lycans argued that Bell's "publicly expressed belief that homosexual relationships and marriages are contrary to God's law" might influence his decision-making on the custody of the child born to her marriage with Zachary Lycans, according to court documents.

The appeals court noted that Judge Bell, in his initial pending ruling on custody, granted the Lycans joint physical custody alternating weekly, and that he had done the same in two other divorce cases involving lesbian mothers.