Think Marriage Has Made Life Easier For Southern Queers? Think Again

In February 2015, Shanté Wolfe-Sisson and Tori Wolfe-Sisson became the first same-sex couple to marry in Alabama.

Sadly, however, the happy couple are still dealing with discrimination as queer people more than a year after their wedding, as the Southern state has no law in place to protect citizens from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Wolfe-Sissions open up about their struggles in a new video produced by The Guardian, which can be viewed above.

"People are basically afraid to get married because it just doesn't stop with fear," Wolfe-Sisson notes in the video. "Literally, you can be fired if you are out publicly and your boss doesn't like it. You can be evicted -- you can be outed at your church! And I mean, in the South, which one is worse? Being outed at your job or being outed at church?"

The video's release comes at a particularly volatile time for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community across several Southern U.S. states. On March 23, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCroy signed House Bill 2 into law, effectively legalizing anti-queer discrimination statewide.

Just one week later, Mississippi passed a "religious liberty" bill that allows people with religious objections to deny services, like weddings, to same-sex couples.

"In the South, gay couples don't really show affection because anything could happen," Wolfe-Sisson continued. "Somebody could walk by and like throw a bible at us or shoot us -- the range is wide and varying. We even find ourselves sometimes not being very very close to each other -- even when we're at home. And then it's almost like checking yourself while you're thinking it. Like, 'Hold on, I get to feel like this. Nobody can control me -- nobody can control how i feel.'"

Check out the video above to hear more from the Wolfe-Sisson family and their experiences.