Tennessee Gov Signs Bill Allowing State Officials To Refuse To Perform Same-Sex Marriages Because Jesus

February 22, 2024 Marriage Equality, Republicans

CNN reports:

Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee has signed a bill that allows people in the state to refuse to “solemnize,” or perform, a marriage if they disagree with it. Last week, Tennessee state lawmakers passed HB 878, which states “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage.”

In Tennessee, only certain people can “solemnize” the “rite of matrimony,” including state notary publics, government officials, and religious figures, according to state code. Camilla Taylor, deputy legal director for litigation for Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy group, said that the law is an effort to “roll back recent progress by the LGBTQ community.”

“Tennessee House Bill 878 would be patently unconstitutional,” Taylor said in a statement to CNN. “Public officials don’t get to assume public office and then pick and choose which members of the public to serve.”

Read the full article. My first report on the bill is here.

The bill’s author, state Sen. Mark Pody, has appeared here many times for his attacks on same-sex marriage. In 2016, he sought to “nullify” the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling.

In 2017, he sponsored a bill calling for Tennessee to defy Obergefell entirely, and literally fled protesters at his press conference.

In 2019, he filed the “Tennessee Natural Marriage Bill” that would void same-sex marriages, something he says God told him to do.

In 2020, he filed a fourth attempt to make the bible the official book of Tennessee. In 2021, he filed a bill that would allow fathers to block abortions by their partners.



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