Senate approves recusals for county clerks, judges objecting to same-sex marriage

[TexasTowelie]

The Texas Senate on Tuesday gave initial approval to a measure allowing county clerks to recuse themselves from signing marriage licenses for same-sex couples because of religious objections.

On a 21-10 vote, senators approved Senate Bill 522 by Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, under which a county commissioners court would appoint another official to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples if the clerk objects because of religious beliefs. The measure would also allow judges to refuse to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples.

State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville was the only Democrat to join Republicans in voting for the measure, which must still obtain final approval before it’s sent over to the House.

The legislation comes almost two years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, after which some same-sex couples in Texas ran into obstacles in obtaining marriage licenses because of county clerks' religious opposition to their marriages.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/11/senate-approves-recusals-county-clerks-judges-objecting-same-sex-marri/

[Docreed2003]

1. Funny how....

Religious exemptions to laws are championed when it's in regards to the rights of same sex couples to be married. As a physician who is a surgeon, how long do you think I could keep my medical license if I refused to transfuse blood to a trauma victim because it was my personal belief that if I transfused them their soul would never get to heaven?? I'm so damn tired of these fundamentalist assholes who are looking for any and every excuse to force their beliefs on everyone around them, and make lives miserable for others in the process.

[Eatbeef]

2. Interesting thought...

This clerk, I wonder, if a Jewish couple came to get a marriage certificate, would she grant it?

As a Christian, I can't help but notice a flaw in her strictly religious views that calls BS on her religious stance and just highlights a pure, non founded hatred for gays. The basis is that the same sex couple is in sin, and she cannot allow herself to be part of that. But in my religion, as a Methodist, being gay does not send you to hell, not believing in Christ as your savior sends you to hell (well, not hell, just not heaven). So wouldn't it bother her more, to issue a marriage certificate to say and Jewish couple (not meaning to pick on the Jewish) that doesn't view Christ as a savior? Or an atheist couple that has no belief in god at all? Wouldn't the bigger riff be that someone doesn't live by the absolute biggest thing in her religion? Why pick on one group? It's just plain un civil. The problem is the government involved in marriage period. Get rid of it. People should be allowed to be legally bound to one person at a time in life and dissolve that partnership through legal divorce. Be that partner a man, woman, lover, sister, mother, brother, or friend or whomever they choose. If you view marriage as a religious contract as I do, then separation of church and state are infringed. And there are religions that support gay marriage.