Officials in Mobile County, Alabama, on Thursday complied with an order from a federal judge, compelling them to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the Washington Post reported.

They and their counterparts in dozens of other counties had originally defied a district court ruling legalizing gay marriage in the state, which had taken effect on Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama's request to put the unions on hold.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Callie Granade reiterated Alabama's ban on gay marriage had been struck down. Consequently, she ordered Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis to issue licenses to same-sex couples.

About 20 gay couples and dozens of well-wishers gathered at Mobile's marriage-license window after the decision was made public around 3:30 p.m. Soon after, the first couples received their licenses.

"We're so thrilled," said 56-year-old Sara Sills, who plans to marry her partner of 23 years. "We're on our way across the street to have a drink to celebrate."

Gay rights groups hope Granade's ruling will give clarity to probate judges in all 67 Alabama counties, the majority of which had continued to refuse to give out marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

While about a dozen places -- including Birmingham, Huntsville and a number of other counties -- attuned to the new reality, other jurisdictions preferred to close their licensing offices altogether, leaving both gay and straight couples with locked doors and shuttered windows.

Though Alabama is the 37th state in the nation where gay marriage has become legal, it is the first in the Deep South, where many residents are socially conservative, Reuters pointed out.

The state's attorney general had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to leave its gay-marriage ban in place until the country's highest tribunal decides later this year whether laws banning the unions violate the U.S. Constitution.

But the court opted in a 7-to-2 decision not to approve Alabama's request, according to the Washington Post. The dissenters were conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, who complained that their colleagues had "cast disrepute on the impartiality of the court" by refusing the stay.

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