Judge Will No Longer Require Same-Sex Couples To Sign Form Acknowledging He Opposes Their Marriages

Denton County Judge James DePiazza will no longer make couples sign a form acknowledging his disagreement with their marriage before he marries them. 

The story of a Texas judge requiring couples to acknowledge his disapproval of same-sex marriage before he would marry them went viral earlier this week. Denton County Judge James DePiazza must have quickly realized his mistake since the online form has been replaced with a much more nicely worded one.

The current online form has two noticeable changes from the previous one.

Change 1: The previous acknowledgement form used to say the following:

“Judge DePiazza prefers to NOT conduct same-sex ceremonies, but will not decline anyone who chooses to schedule with him.”

The above statement has been changed to the following, more professional one:

“Judge DePiazza requires the same paperwork and conducts the same ceremony for all couples.”

Change 2: The previous acknowledgement form used to say the following:

“While we may not necessarily agree with, we acknowledge Judge DePiazza’s position that he prefers to not conduct same-sex marriages and agree to not address the topic of same-sex marriages with Judge DePiazza before, during or after the ceremony.”

The above statement has been changed to simply state the following:

“We acknowledge that this time is reserved for our ceremony only and not for conducting any other business.”

Judge James DePiazza was not available for comment at the time of publishing this article. All sections declaring Judge DePiazza’s disdain for same-sex marriage have been removed from the acknowledgement form that couples are required to sign before they get married, and it’s just as well.

Just think about what would happen in other situations if you were required to sign a form acknowledging someone’s personal beliefs before you conducted business. Can you imagine if just before a judge married a straight couple, he made them sign a form that said he disapproved of their marriage because they had sex before getting married, were married previously, were an interracial couple, etc?

Check out some of the reactions people had when they heard about the original acknowledgement form.

Have you experienced challenges with getting your marriage license? If so, let us know in the comments below. 

 

Image by Allegro Photography via Flickr and a CC license