North Carolina’s legislature isn’t alone in its attempt to give some state
employees a choice when it comes to same-sex marriage issues. Several bills have been filed in South Carolina that have a similar aim and purpose,
The State reports:
Those who introduced the legislation cite that nearly 80 percent of South Carolinians voted to amend the state’s constitution to ban gay marriage in 2006.
“We’ve got to continue to find ways to push back against violations against (the S.C. marriage amendment),” said state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg. “Marriage is clearly a state issue.”
One of the South Carolina bills, HB 3022, has a similar theme to that of North Carolina’s
recent bill protecting the possible religious objections of magistrates and registers of deeds. The South Carolina bill, however, goes several steps further.
That bill’s language includes blocking the use of taxpayer funds and state government salaries for such purposes.
House bill 3022‘s language also states in part that:
No state or local governmental employee officially shall recognize, grant, or enforce a same-sex marriage license.
Another bill,
seeking to amend the U.S. Constitution, calls for a convening of the states in order to propose an amendment that would establish marriage in the United States as being between a man and a woman.
A
third bill says that no state agency, office, or official can place a penalty or punishment on any person or entity for refusing to provide goods or services tied to a same-sex marriage. The intent here possibly points to cases in other states where bakers, florists or other goods providers
have been sued for refusing to service a same-sex marriage ceremony.
Unlike North Carolina, where Attorney General (and potential gubernatorial candidate) Roy Cooper swiftly refused to
defend the state on the matter, South Carolina’s Attorney General
Alan Wilson “exhausted every legal option.”
Gay marriage proponents accused Wilson of ‘pandering’ and ‘wasting time,’ according to
Greenville Online:
Jeff Ayers, interim executive director of South Carolina Equality, a gay rights group that joined in the lawsuit that led to the ban’s overturning, said Wilson’s counterparts in North Carolina and Florida “were smart enough to realize it was a lost cause” when federal judges ruled against them and “gave up the fight quickly after they were defeated.”
Ayers said he figures Wilson didn’t because “he’s looking at higher office some day down the road and pandering to the base. That’s the only thing we can figure out.”
Similar to North Carolina’s Amendment One vote, South Carolina also had a large majority back an amendment to their state constitution banning same-sex marriage.
A.P. Dillon resides in the Triangle area of North Carolina and is the founder of LadyLiberty1885.com. Her current and past writing can also be found at Da Tech Guy Blog, StopCommonCoreNC.org, WatchdogWireNC and WizBang. Her current writing project is a children’s book series.
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