Once Again the Religious Right Is Willing to Compromise the Safety of Children to Advance Its Radical Agenda
Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives on Wednesday killed a bill they were considering that would have banned so-called child marriages, or marriages where at least one of the would-be spouses are under 18. Child marriages in the state of Tennessee will continue to be legal for the foreseeable future.
Why were the conservative lawmakers against banning an institution that studies show is dangerous and damaging for the person, usually a woman, who is underage?
Gay marriage.
No, they aren’t looking to protect same-sex marriage, and no, same-sex marriage has nothing to do with child marriage.
Except in the convoluted mind of one former religious right lawmaker who several years ago became a right wing activist.
David Fowler (photo) is now the head of FACT, the Family Action Council of Tennessee. The group is associated with the anti-gay hate groups Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom, along with the anti-gay organization Focus On The Family. He has used his ties to Tennessee lawmakers to advance his dangerous and extremist agenda.
Fowler argued that if Republicans passed the bill banning child marriages, it “could interfere with a lawsuit he is mounting to counter the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing gay marriage,” according to The Tennessean.
“Fowler’s legal theory is that the Supreme Court’s ruling essentially nullified all Tennessee marriage licences, as it required legal marriage to be opened up beyond just a man and a women,” a theory which is incredibly naive and will never see the inside of the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Therefore,” The Tennessean explains, “according to Fowler, if the state were to move forward with this logic in a legal argument against the ruling, modifying state marriage law could acknowledge its existence.”
In 2016 Fowler, who calls transgender students “abnormal,” tried to ban same-sex marriage by getting rid of all marriage. It was a ploy that did not work.
Once again the religious right is willing to compromise the safety of children to advance its radical agenda.Â
“Basically, what has happened is the Family Action Council wants to continue to let 13-year-olds get married in the state at the sake of their court case against same-sex couples,” Democratic State Rep. Darren Jernigan said after the bill to ban child marriages died. “It’s disgraceful. I’m embarrassed for the State of Tennessee, and I can only pray that we bring this back next year and not let them get in the way.”