Colorado County Clerk Comes to his Senses, Removes Antigay Poster
We’ve received what appears to be good news about a Colorado County Clerk who had been resisting marriage equality by posting an antigay, religious sign at the clerk’s office. The poster shows a bride and a groom accompanied by a verse from the first Book of Corinthians reading, “…each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” Schroeder claimed that the sign merely celebrates marriage, but it turns out that he wrote an email, to other county clerks, admitting, “My thought process is that they have to see the poster. And if they choose to violate God’s written Word, then that is on their head.”
Former Pastor Files Needless “Pastor Protection” Bill
On the first day lawmakers could file legislation in Virginia, Delegate Chris Head filed House Bill 19, a bill that would clarify that people authorized to perform marriage ceremonies may not be required to do so. Del. Head, a former pastor, explained that “[t]he purpose of this bill is simply to absolutely clarify that pastors of churches shouldn’t be compelled to perform a ceremony that violates the tenets of their religion; nothing more.”
More on the New York Wedding-Venue Discrimination Case
Yesterday I wrote about a New York case in which a commercial wedding venue claims that it has a constitutional right to discriminate against same-sex couples, in violation of New York state law, when renting out its facility. New York Law Journal now has a report on the oral argument.
Lawyers for the wedding venue argued that merely by renting the facility for a same-sex couple to use for its wedding—on the same terms that the venue rents to other tenants—the venue's owners are being forced to "endorse a viewpoint with which they disagree" in violation of the First Amendment.
Religious Refusal of the Day: New York Wedding Venue Discriminates Against Same-Sex Couple
One of the more farfetched attempts to use religion to discriminate is on display in a case working its way through the New York courts. The owners of a commercial wedding venue refused to rent their venue to a same-sex couple who wanted to use it for their wedding. Unsurprisingly, the New York Division of Human Rights concluded that the wedding venue's refusal to rent to the couple violated the state's antidiscrimination law.
Skim-Milk Marriage Licenses, Kim Davis Edition
The Kim Davis saga continues. After she was released from jail (after being held in contempt for blocking the Rowan County Clerk's office from issuing marriage licenses) she confiscated all of the standard licenses, and replaced them with marriage licenses that no longer mention of Rowan County or the Rowan County Clerk or Deputy Clerks, and which makes it clear that the licenses are being issued in response to a court order. By using this adulterated form, Davis is announcing to couples that the government is letting them get married only under protest, and she is possibly jeopardizing the legal legitimacy of the marriages at issue.