Those darn gays, you just can't keep 'em down on the farm closeted. Same-sex marriages are now legal in 36 states and DC, and the Supreme Court will likely strike down the rest of the state bans this spring. Since marriage equality will soon be the law of the land, some government officials and elected leaders are scrambling to drag out the pain as long as possible while they drain every last ounce of support they can get from their rabid, homophobic base.
An OK representative has a solution to the problem of constitutionally protected gay marriage: Get the government out of marriage and turn it over to the churches.
Not OK, Oklahoma!
Kansas same-sex couples won the right to marry back in November 2014. When the State appealed it, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court both refused state officials' request for a stay. The Kansas Attorney General and state officials have decided the ruling applies to only two of the state's 105 counties. It's a state marriage law, with a state court striking down a state-wide ban but, oh well. I guess gay-married folks are fine as long as they don't drive through a neighboring county. Kansas officials will probably drag out this patchwork equality/non-equality nonsense until a judge tells them to quit screwing around.
Florida's same-sex marriage ban was ruled unconstitutional back in August 2014. State officials got a stay, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their case or extend the stay. Florida clerks were told that the ruling wouldn't apply state-wide and the Judge had to intervene to remind them that his ruling might not order them to do their jobs, but the Constitution does. In nothing less than an anti-gay hissy fit, some county clerks will provide the marriage license but are refusing perform weddings anymore. They won't even do them for straight couples, since it would be, cough, illegal to discriminate. Now they'll probably claim that gay marriage did wreck straight marriage.
Oklahoma State Rep. Todd Russ (R) is worried about public employees being put in the position of having to condone or facilitate same-sex marriage. Most of us think the marriage license component of a court clerk's job is to process paperwork, not condone relationships, but Rep Russ is also an ordained minister. Maybe he doesn't quite understand the concept of separation of church and state.
When Oklahoma's same sex marriage ban was stuck down last October and the high court declined to review the federal court decision, Rep Russ provided a flowery and not-very-ministerial response:
“Oklahoma voted overwhelmingly against same-sex marriage, and yet the Supreme Court stuck it down our throats.”
Okaaaay. I'm not even going to touch that one.
In order to "protect court clerks from having to issue licenses to same-sex couples," state Rep. Todd Russ has proposed an end to marriage licensing completely.
#Facepalm
Russ' bill would require a religious official to sign a couple’s marriage certificate, which would then be filed with the clerk. Marriages would no longer be performed by judges. If a couple did not have a religious official to preside over their wedding, they could file an affidavit of common law marriage.
Rep Russ explains this contortion with:
“Marriages are not supposed to be a government thing anyway."
Not a government thing? Aside from who officiates, a judge or religious official, there's not much change. Couples would still file their certificate with the court clerk. The government would still track marriages and the courts would still deal with assets, children, etc. at the time of death or dissolution of the civil contract.
So what exactly is the point of this new permutation of marriage? Mostly to force marriage back into the church, where good folks can legally discriminate.
I think we need the exact opposite. Religions have been throttling marriage for long enough. The only reason religious officials have had their hands on this civil contract is because historically many states didn't have the resources to provide courts and and clerks everywhere. So they let ministers and preachers handle the record keeping for what should have been a civil institution all along.
That's not the case today. Every county in the country has staff for handling marriage contracts. It's time to get their controlling hands of this public civil institution. Church officials can continue promoting their concept of holy matrimony, but it's time to get the church out of the civil marriage business completely.
Meanwhile, I guess Oklahoma will have to be dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming.