The North Carolina state senate is right now debating a bill allowing magistrates to decline to marry gay people – using a unique loophole to get around its discriminatory nature.
Right now, the North Carolina State Senate is debating legislation that would allow magistrates – whose job it is to marry people – to not marry anyone. The goal is to allow those who wish to claim a religious objection to same-sex marriage to opt out of marrying same-sex couples, but to do that with any legality whatsoever, lawmakers have structured the legislation so that magistrates must opt out of performing all marriages.
The bill is being sponsored by Senate President pro tempore Phil Berger (image), who has been actively working to fight same-sex marriage for years.
Equality North Carolina and others are live-tweeting the debate. You can listen to the debate and vote by visiting the NC legislature’s website, and clicking on the Senate Chamber link.
Some tweets:
NCRM will report on the results of the vote – stay tuned.
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UPDATE:
Breaking: North Carolina Senate Votes To Allow Discrimination At The Marriage Bureau
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Image via Facebook