Tennessee: Officials Can Refuse To Perform Same-Sex Marriages Under Newly Passed Law

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Tennessee has passed a controversial law allowing public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages if their conscience or religious beliefs do not allow it, the Christian Post reports. The US Supreme Court established the right to same-sex marriage through its 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Passed by the Republican-led legislature along party lines, the Tennessee legislation was signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee last Wednesday. The law provides: “A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”
The bill has caused an outcry among human rights advocates and the LGBT community.

“Marriage equality was settled by the Supreme Court in 2015, reaffirmed by a bipartisan majority in Congress in 2022, and there is overwhelming support nationally for same-sex marriage,” Molly Whitehorn of the Human Rights Campaign organization told The Tennessean. “All Tennesseans have a right to marry the person they love regardless of gender and should not be turned away by a government employee based upon that employee’s personal beliefs,” Whitehorn said.

Tennessee’s Republican Rep. Monty Fritts, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement: “The government has a responsibility to protect the exercise of religious beliefs. Those with the authority to perform civil ceremonies would also be permitted to refuse to solemnize marriage for reasons of conscience.”

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