Thursday, March 12th, 2015
Stephan: Here is my position. I have held it for years: Any two people of whatever gender who want to spend their lives together as partners, ought to be able to file the appropriate papers and create that contract. The role of the clerks should be to handle the paperwork. And they should be required to do it in the same way that they handle any other kind of contract or license.
The Marriage Contract is a document between individuals and the state. It should have no religious aspect at all. This contract affects how you buy property, or pays taxes, other interactions with the state. This contract is what gives you access to your dying spouse; I can tell you that from personal experience.
If a couple wish to publicly declare this partnership in some ceremonial way, they should be free to do so in anyway they wish, involving some spiritual leader if they can find one who will oversee the ceremony. But it should be entirely elective. This hate motivated movement by Oklahoma ironically may evolve to something very like what I have described.
Female minister uses a tablet PC to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony
Credit: Shutterstock
An Oklahoma bill putting marriage licenses solely in the hands of clergy was approved by the state House of Representatives on Tuesday, the Tulsa World reported.
House Bill 1125 would bar county clerks from issuing marriage licenses in the wake of the federal court ruling late last year striking down a state ban on same-sex marriages. The bill passed in a 67-24 vote, sending it to the state Senate.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Todd Russ (R), said it would “protect” county court clerks opposed to marriage equality from having to recognize same-sex couples’ unions. Shifting the responsibility onto select clergy members, Russ said, takes clerks “out of the trap.”
If the Senate passes the bill, only “an ordained or authorized preacher or minister of the Gospel, priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary of any denomination” would be allowed to issue “certificates of marriage” after presiding over a […]
This begs the question as to whether or not the State has a right to discriminate against same sex couples seeking a legal contract, in this case marriage. I don’t believe for a second that the US Constitution would support this kind of discrimination. Then again, I don’t believe the State should be involved in affairs of the heart and link certain benefits to whether one is married or not. To me, marriage is a private affair and the State has no business making rules about buying property, tax benefits, etc. based on the marital status of a couple.
I would think that there would be many pro gay ministers who would be very happy to perform the ceremony.