A proposed Tennessee bill would strengthen “conscience rights,” allowing people qualified to officiate marriage ceremonies to refuse to perform same-sex unions, or any others to which they object.
But on March 14, proponents of the bill hit a snag when it stalled. Members of the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted to delay further consideration of the measure until Jan. 23, 2024.
Opponents of the bill saw it as a win, until “next year, when it could resume moving through the process,” Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project and Tennessee Equality Project Foundation, told The Epoch Times in a written statement. “We believe that public officials should serve the entire public and cannot support the bill.”
The act was signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2022. It recognizes any marriage between two individuals that is valid under state law and was written to give federal protection to same-sex and interracial unions.
It also requires states to recognize marriages legally performed in other states. And it allows the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring a civil action and establishes a private right of action, for violations.
Conscientious and Religious Objections
The summary also states that the act does not “require religious organizations to provide goods or services to formally recognize or celebrate a marriage.”But the proposed Tennessee bill threatens same-sex marriages there, LGBT activists argue. And many media outlets have interpreted the new measure as an attempt to ban gay marriage by proxy.
Under current Tennessee law, any couple planning to marry must first obtain a marriage license from a county clerk.
Then, the couple must make marriage vows to solemnize the marriage before a religious leader, judge, elected state official, county clerk, or others allowed under state statute.
After that vow-taking ceremony, the officiant signs the marriage license and returns it to the county clerk.
The proposed law is just two sentences long.
If passed, it would stipulate that in Tennessee, “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.”
It doesn’t address whether county clerks can refuse to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples. And if a person authorized to perform a marriage refuses a couple, nothing in the law prevents the couple from finding a willing officiant.
The Epoch Times attempted to contact the bill’s Republican sponsors, state Rep. Monty Fritts and state Sen. Mike Pody. Neither responded by publication time.
In a debate on the House floor, Fritts said he knew of no instance when an unwilling officiant had been forced under the current law to solemnize a marriage in Tennessee.
But, he said, the lack of apparent need for the law was irrelevant. The bill would protect “civil liberties and rights,” he said.
To Marry or Not To Marry
Current state law generally says state officials and clergy “may” authorize a marriage, but it doesn’t say they must, according to legal analysis by the Family Research Council (FRC).If someone with authority to solemnize marriage doesn’t want to perform a ceremony for any reason, he or she can refuse, the FRC’s analysis reads.
“Pastors decide what marriages they will and won’t perform—they are not required to perform marriages they do not wish to perform, such as same-sex marriages,” according to the FRC legal analysis.
Officiants may have other reasons for declining to participate in some marriage ceremonies, Fritts pointed out.
And the right to refuse a request to perform a ceremony rarely affects whether a couple can marry, the analysis suggests.
“No individual has been denied a marriage ceremony because they couldn’t find anyone to perform it,” the FRC analysis asserts. “Therefore, it is difficult to see what interest the state would have in forcing anyone to perform any solemnization.”
But the law doesn’t explicitly say a lawful officiant may refuse to conduct a couple’s wedding.
So people who refuse to perform a marriage ceremony could face a challenge, according to the FRC.
The proposed legislation would turn what’s now an implied choice into a legal guarantee.
In a written statement, the Human Rights Campaign called the proposed law a continuation of Tennessee’s “obsession with anti-LGBT legislation.”
“They are about stripping away the basic human rights that LGBT people have fought for over decades, forcing LGBT people, particularly transgender and non-binary people, back in the closet and labeling us as dangerous.”
The Epoch Times contacted the Human Rights Campaign, but the organization didn’t respond by publication time.
Sanders wrote in a press release that “the Tennessee House of Representatives continues to be one of the most dangerous legislative chambers in the country for LGBT people.
“They have ignored constituents in their offices, phone calls, and compelling committee testimony. It is time they became the People’s House again.”
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