Gay Couple Sues After Texas Clerk Cites Religion, Refuses To Issue Marriage License, Calls Cops

A same-sex couple has repeatedly been denied a marriage license by Texas county clerk who has refused on religious grounds, and at one point called the cops on them.

Together 27 years, Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton just want to get married. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage on June 26, the Grandbury, Texas couple thought they’d be able to, like everyone else in America. They were wrong.

First, Hood County, Texas county clerk Katie Lang refused to issue them a marriage license, citing her deeply held religious beliefs. On June 30 Lang criticized the Supreme Court “for ‘newly inventing‘ a constitutional right to gay marriage,” Courthouse News reports. She then “cited a June 28 nonbinding opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton that urged county clerks and justices of the peace not to issue licenses or perform same-sex marriages if they have personal religious objections.”

She later relented, saying someone else in her office would issue the license, but told the couple she didn’t have the forms, and wouldn’t for another three weeks. When Jim and Joe told her they downloaded the forms online, printed them and then filled them out – in her office – she refused to accept them.

The couple have been showing up daily to try to obtain a marriage license.

One day last week, the media showed up with them. This has become a national story, with even CNN’s Anderson Cooper tweeting about it:

So Katie Lang called the cops to try to get Jim and Joe thrown out of her office. 

“County Clerk Katie Lang attempted to order from her office a contingent that included media and a gay couple seeking to fill out a marriage license application,” the Hood County News reported.

“I’m a taxpayer,” James Cato said in response to Lang’s order. Cato is seeking to marry his longtime partner, Joe Stapleton. Lang then said that the media had to go. The building that houses her office is a public building. Sheriff Roger Deeds and several deputies responded to Lang’s call for assistance, but simply stood outside the door without ordering anyone to leave. More fireworks resulted a few minutes later when the men’s attorneys arrived on the scene from Austin.

The couple are’t trying to make this into a big deal, they just want the rights everyone else has.

“If her personal beliefs keep her from her duties as county clerk,” Jim told CBS in Dallas, “then she should probably step out of her job.”

“We’re not after her. We’re not after her job,” Joe added. “We’re after equality.”

The couple this morning were forced to file a federal lawsuit so they can marry.

UPDATE: 10:52 AM EDT –
Breaking: After Gay Couple Files Lawsuit, Texas Clerk Citing Religion Issues Marriage License

 

Image by Anna M. Tinsley via Twitter
Video via Dallas Morning News