Dana7360
Diamond Member
- Aug 6, 2014
- 15,147
- 13,596
- 2,405
A magistrate in the state I live in refused to marry a gay couple even though homosexual marriage was just declared legal by the courts. So a couple of questions.
1 If a gay couple ask a conservative preacher to marry them can he site his religious beliefs and say no?
2 If the answer to question 1 is yes should a magistrate be able to say no because of his beliefs?
My only fear now that it is legal is that preachers are going to be forced into marrying them even though it is against his beliefs.
A magistrate isn't a priest or minister. He's not even a representative for any church. A magistrate isn't a religious title. It's a title for a judge. In no way is it a religious title or has anything to do with religion.
If that magistrate is in business to marry people then no they don't have any right to deny any couple the marriage ceremony. They have a business license to conduct business. In that license they sign which is a legal contract, they agree to do business with the public. There are no exceptions for gay people.
So it doesn't matter what religion that magistrate is. He's not in a church and he's not doing a religious ceremony. Religion has nothing to do with any of it.
If you want people to violate the law, violate a business contract and discriminate one segment of the population, then you sparky, aren't an American who follows our laws or our constitution.