County Commissioners Advance Resolution To Ignore Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Decision

Commissioners in a tiny Tennessee county think they will be able to help overturn the historic Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision.

Commissioners in one small Tennessee county Monday night voted to advance a resolution they believe will ultimately lead to the legal reinstatement of their state law defining marriage as between only one man and one woman, and the overturning of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision.

The Unicoi County Commission voted unanimously to direct their county attorney to review two resolutions that ask the Tennessee General Assembly to uphold the state’s unconstitutional law banning same-sex marriage, and to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell, that gives same-sex couples the right to marry. 

The Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), an anti-gay and anti-choice group that believes “healthy families and communities come about when basic values from the Bible are embraced,” before the vote delivered a presentation to the commissioners. That presentation, by several members of FACT, reportedly claimed these resolutions will lead to a constitutional convention that would overturn Obergefell, the Johnson City Press reports today.

The Press adds that Family Action Council of Tennessee’s Charlene Thomas “said two bills will be introduced in the next session of the state General Assembly that, if passed, would likewise move Tennessee toward an override of the gay marriage ruling and organized opposition to the ruling is also gaining momentum in other states.”

34 states must sign onto a petition calling for a constitutional convention that includes at least one amendment, and then 38 states must ratify that amendment before it can be enacted. It has never been done.

A solid majority of Americans for years have supported the right to marry for same-sex couples, over 60 court decisions have found bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, and the U.S. Supreme Court has found same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Unicoi County has a 7.3% unemployment rate, far above the national average, and one in fie residents are living in poverty, but attempting to deny same-sex couples the right to marry is what their county commissioners decided to prioritize.

 

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Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr and a CC license