Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law a bill that protects the religious convictions of people approached to solemnize or officiate a marriage.
“A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs,” reads the new law which took effect on Wednesday.
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Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly narrowly passed a bill that would protect same-sex marriage in the commonwealth in the event the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Obergefell v. Hodges, which effectively legalized same-sex unions throughout the country in 2015.
HB 174 seeks to amend Virginia law to declare that “no person authorized” to “issue a marriage license shall deny the issuance of such license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of sex, gender, or race of such parties” with an exception for religious organizations and clergy members, who “shall have the right to refuse to perform any marriage.”
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Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly filed resolutions on Wednesday to amend the Virginia Constitution to allow same-sex marriage.
State Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) and Delegate Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax) filed twin versions of SJ 11, which would repeal “the constitutional provision defining marriage as only a union between one man and one woman as well as the related provisions that are no longer valid as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.”
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A Catholic Massachusetts couple filed a federal lawsuit this week that makes the claim they were rejected as potential foster parents because of their faith beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
The couple, Mike and Kitty Burke of Southampton, said in their complaint they were told by a state employee of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) their religious beliefs conflict with the state’s policy requiring them to affirm same-sex relationships and gender ideology.
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In the wake of Elon Musk’s indication that he will resign as chief executive officer of the social-media platform Twitter, Nashville-based journalist and sportscaster Jason Whitlock is suggesting himself as an apt replacement.
Musk tweeted out a poll to Twitter users last weekend asking whether they wished him to remain as the website’s CEO or leave the post. The survey garnered 17 million responses, 57.5 percent of whom voted for Musk’s departure. The founder of the auto company Tesla and the spacecraft creator SpaceX acquired Twitter in late October for $44 billion and is expected to remain the platform’s owner while giving up direction of the company to another individual whom he has not yet selected.
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President Joe Biden signed the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill amid fanfare and celebration, but an attorney-led Christian ministry that says it won nearly 50 cases defending marriage as between one man and one woman before the Obergefell decision asserts the passage of the legislation can now “actually create the perfect scenario to overturn” the Supreme Court’s 2015 5-4 ruling.
Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) Tuesday.
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The U.S. House voted Thursday to pass a bill codifying protections for same-sex marriages.
The vote was 258-169 as nearly 40 Republicans sided with the bill, which has already passed the Senate and will soon head to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the legislation into law.
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House Democrats have blocked an amendment that would have strengthened religious liberty protections to their legislation to codify same-sex marriage to ensure swift passage of the bill before Republicans take over leadership of the House in the new year.
“If we were to amend this, and it goes back to the Senate, for all intents and purposes it’s dead for the year,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), who rejected Representative Chip Roy’s (R-TX) amendment for advancement to the House floor.
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Same-sex marriage is on track to becoming codified in federal statute and retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) is celebrating his role as a key driver of the change.
In 2013, Portman became the first Republican senator to support redefining marriage as something other than the matrimonial union between one man and one woman. He attributed his reversal of his prior opposition to gay marriage to his son having come out two years earlier.
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Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) religious liberty amendment to the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill failed by just one vote, 48-49, an outcome that, if the legislation is signed into law, could give a green light to the federal government’s retaliation against nonprofit faith organizations, such as schools and businesses, whose religious beliefs are incompatible with gay marriage.
Senate Democrats voted Tuesday, 61-36, to codify same-sex marriage into federal law with the help of 12 Republicans, as the Senate Press Gallery noted.
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A bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law progressed further in the Senate Monday evening with significant Republican support, but without sufficient religious liberty protections, and is now headed to a vote on Tuesday.
The Senate voted, 61-35, with four senators not voting, to end debate on the House-passed bill, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA), that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage in federal law as between one man and one woman.
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Faith leaders are calling upon Republicans to uphold their party’s platform that declares “the union of one man and one woman” to be the “cornerstone of the family.”
The leaders are reacting to the fact that 12 Senate Republicans joined with Democrats Wednesday to advance legislation, dubbed by Democrats the Respect for Marriage Act, that would codify the Supreme Court‘s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal across all 50 states.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved for a procedural vote Wednesday on legislation that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law and block any states refusing to recognize such marriages.
The bill also would provide federal protection for interracial marriage.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints indicated support Tuesday for legislation that would require states to recognize same-sex marriages performed under other states’ laws and repeal any federal law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, despite previously supporting efforts against same-sex marriage legalization.
The House passed the Respect for Marriage Act in July, with five of six church members in the House voting in favor of the bill. The church’s Tuesday statement expressed gratitude “for the continuing efforts of those who work to ensure the Respect for Marriage Act includes appropriate religious freedom protections while respecting the law and preserving the rights of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.”
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Catholics must “stay firm in the truth” as those who have embraced an LGBTQ agenda are in the midst of a “hostile takeover” of the Catholic Church, warned German Cardinal Gerhard Müller in interviews over the past week with both EWTN’s The World Over and LifeSiteNews.
Müller, the former head of the Vatican’s highest doctrinal office, is voicing his significant concerns about the dangers to the Church brought on during Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality, a process that involves collecting the views of lay Catholics in every diocese around the world prior to the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2023.
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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Thursday he would vote in favor of a bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage into federal law, even though he believes the legislation is “unnecessary.”
In a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson said about the legislation Democrats have titled the Respect for Marriage Act, “Prior to the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, I supported civil unions.”
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The U.S. House passed a bill to codify same-sex marriage late Tuesday, but whether it will pass the Senate remains up in the air.
The “Respect for Marriage Act” passed the House 267-157 with 47 Republicans voting in favor. The legislation would overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. That law has been largely gutted by the Supreme Court but still remains on the books.
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A Christian florist in Washington settled a legal case Thursday centering around her refusal to provide custom floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding.
“I have put to rest the last legal considerations for a decision my husband, Darold, and I made nearly a decade ago,” Barronelle Stutzman said in a release from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
The public-interest law firm that represented Stutzman stated that the legal battle that started in 2012 will end with a $5,000 payment to Robert Ingersoll, the customer she turned down.
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The Virginia General Assembly has taken another step towards repealing the one-man-and-one-woman marriage clause from the Virginia Constitution. On Monday, the House of Delegates passed Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) SJ 270 in a bipartisan vote.
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Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pontiff while being interviewed for the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival.
The papal thumbs-up came midway through the film that delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
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A Michigan business has sued the state’s Department of Civil Rights after it was placed under investigation for refusing to host a same-sex marriage.
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The president and chief executive of the Hallmark Channel, Bill Abbot is stepping down barely a month after the company faced controversy over a later-reversed decision to pull a commercial showing a same-sex couple getting married, The Hill reports.
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The Republican dominated General Assembly has already moved the appointment of judges to the Governor and if they have their way this legislative session, they will continue to keep the selection of the state’s chief law enforcement officer out of the reach of Tennessee voters as well. Forty-three states elect their Attorney General. Sen. Ken Yager (R-Kingston), chief sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 611 which partially reforms selection of the State Attorney General, has previously stated that selecting an AG through popular election is the least-preferred method of selection Yager’s resolution would instead require the General Assembly to confirm the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Attorney General nominee and if rejected, require the court to submit another nominee. The AG’s term would also be reduced from eight years to four years. In the past, the state’s Supreme Court has held a public hearing during which lawyers applying for the AG position made presentations in open court. However, most of the court’s process is kept from public view. Judges conduct private interviews of the candidates and there is no record of how they vote on the AG nominee. Yager’s resolution would open the Supreme Court’s process – “[t]he nomination shall be made by the Supreme Court in open court…
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A seemingly benign bill sponsored by progressive Democrats from Davidson County, Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) and Rep. Darren Jernigan, if passed, will support Tennessee Attorney General’s directive to county clerks that they must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in compliance with Supreme Court’s ruling in the Obergefell case. Attorney General Slattery issued that directive the same day the Supreme Court issued its ruling. The Yarbro/Jernigan bill, SB1790/HB1785, would raise the state’s age of marriage to 18 and eliminate all other provisions in state law that allow parents to consent to minors marrying. David Fowler, President of the Family Action Council of TN (FACTN) says that amending Tennessee’s marriage license laws in any way, arguably supports the Attorney General’s position opposing the suit filed by FACTN’s Constitutional Government Defense Fund (CGDF) challenging the Obergefell decision’s effect on the state’s marriage license laws. It is the only case of its type pending in any U.S. court. In that case the Attorney General argued that “As the General Assembly…has declined to repeal [the male-female language requirement] post-Obergefell, it is evident that the General Assembly does not intend the entire marriage-licensing scheme should be invalidated in the wake of Obergefell.” Serving as counsel of record for the CDGF, Fowler filed…
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Arkansas must put the names of same-sex couples on children’s birth certificates, a decision David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, said reflects the high court “again eroding the rights of the states.” Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented in an opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The decision reversed an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state law defining the other spouse as the woman’s husband and presumed father. Alabama’s highest court had said “it does not violate equal protection to acknowledge basic biological truths.” The plaintiffs in the case before the U.S. Supreme Court were two married lesbian couples who had children through anonymous sperm donation. One woman in each couple gave birth and wanted her partner to be listed as her spouse, but the state would only issue certificates with the birth mother’s name. The presumption of motherhood for lesbian partners is “irrational, illogical and impossible,” Fowler told The Tennessee Star. Fowler said that when the high court moved to “deconstruct marriage” in a 2015 ruling that struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, it “started the process of deconstructing the family as a whole.” Birth…
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Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is running for the U.S. Senate and this week announced that a former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party will lead his campaign. Moore, a conservative Christian known for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses and for promoting courthouse displays of the Ten Commandments, is running for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former Senate seat. Bill Armistead was state GOP chairman from 2011 to 2015 and served two terms in the state Senate starting in 1994. Armistead shares Moore’s conservative values and is a vocal opponent of gay marriage, reports AL.com. “Bill will help us engage the real people of Alabama who are frustrated by establishment politics in Washington and want a senator who will be their voice,” Moore said in a press release. Moore was suspended as chief justice last year after he told probate judges they had to uphold the state’s ban on gay marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 struck down laws banning same-sex marriage in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. Moore has maintained that the federal government does not have constitutional authority to redefine marriage. In April, Moore resigned as chief justice to run for the Senate in a special election…
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