Tennessee GOP quietly overturns marriage equality by giving officials the right to refuse

“As societal views change about what constitutes a marriage, officiants must be able to refuse to solemnize marriages that are contrary to their beliefs. The government has a responsibility to protect the exercise of religious beliefs," he said, via CNN. "Those with the authority to perform civil ceremonies would also be permitted to refuse to solemnize marriage for reasons of conscience.”

So if someone's religion did not believe "christianity" was a valid religion, they could refuse to give a license to a christian couple.
Be careful what power you give the people, they can use it against you.

The most terrifying aspect is that it isn't just gay marriage at stake here - Interracial marriages, atheist marriages, inter-abled marriages.. ALL marriages are at risk if a person you've never met won't sign a piece of paper.

What’s done in secret brings public shame. Those legislators are a disgrace.

Looks like they remembered that three new conservative Supreme Court justices had been added, and figured it was time to start chipping away at gay marriage.

And...This is what happens when the Supreme Court decides stare decisis is optional. If the Court doesn't respect prior decisions, be prepared for every single issue to be re-litigated after members are added to or leave the Court.

GOP continue to be pieces of trash. I really wish the party would just die off, but Trumpism gave them a bolder fascist to believe in.

Fucking SCOTUS bait. This is to overturn Hodges

Oh please let someone refuse to marry a hetero couple.

I think we non-Americans never hear names of these states in postive context.

If you live in this shit states the most important thing you can do in your whole life is leave.

They yearn to be the first christofacist state. They have some competition with Alabama raising their game with embryos

I REFUSE to sign off on Republican Marriages!

Thankfully, not everyone around here is a bigot. My officiator was an employee at the DMV who was very happy to be a part of my gay wedding in the DMV parking lot. Three years this August.

Congress should just pass a law to allow online marriage services so someone in a progressive state can marry anyone who needs to get married in a shithole state.

"We don't want to get rid of gay marriage" yea fuckers, we knew you were full of shit deplorables. This is beyond the fucking pale.

I think we should get rid of marriages entirely. It's bad, complicated law, and the people getting into it often don't understand it. Plus religion sucks ass. There has to be a better way to share assets and custody and taxes.

Isn't this a federal law though? Is it normal practice to allow states to supercede federal law if they arbitrarily want to?

This headline is so headline grabby. Sure the local fucking bigot won't do it, but practically anyone can qualify as eligible for solemnizing a marriage.

I think it's real shitty what they did and are trying to do, don't get me wrong, but LGBTQ are not going away and there's a lot more supporters than haters out there. Even in red states many supporters remain silent to avoid the loud dumb bigots.

Why are the conservatives so homophobic? Are they having sex with your husbands or something?

I had a gay man hit me in a gay bar. I said sorry I'm straight and he called me a tease. I was sorta flattered. This must be what females feel all the time.

Wait.. aren't you people the same one's telling everyone they can't tell you what to do with your body, but here you want to demand someone give up their choice? If one person refuses, move on to the next. A lot of you don't understand the word freedom, or hypocrite.