Well the thing I feared that would happen in Oklahoma just happened in Virginia:
Tamar Courtney and Morgan Strong have been together for six years and will be getting married this summer in Virginia. They wanted a friend to officiate the ceremony but after facing some difficulties in obtaining his license, they figured they would just go to the county courthouse and take care of the legal paperwork.
They had some issues obtaining a public servant in their home county, so they jumped over to another. They were rebuffed:
Morgan: … am I speaking with Bud Roth?
Roth: This is he.
Morgan: How you doing. I just received a phone call. I guess my fiancee had called up looking to be wed in Franklin County?
Roth: Tamar?
Morgan: Yeah.
Roth: Okay, yeah.
Morgan: Okay… and why was she declined the service?
Roth: Because she’s Agnostic and you’re an atheist. I will not marry you. You don’t believe in God.
Morgan: I mean… but… so that’s your judgment on it, correct?
Roth: That’s my decision. I’m not judging you. I just don’t marry anyone who does not believe in God [or] believes that there is a God someplace.
This is a miscarriage of social justice and I’m utterly repulsed by this treatment of non-believers. I love how in the end, the dickheaded public servant says “I’m not judging you.”
No. You don’t get to say “I’m not judging”, and then judge the couple unworthy of simple civil rights. Typical. Your whole fucking faith is based on circular logic, you sons of bitches. I can’t wait for the lawsuits to fly.
by public servant do you mean justice of the peace? if not, please specify
just googled bud roth. seems like this was in 2014. do you know if they were able to get remedy?
I mean justice of the peace. If there’s any daylight between the two, I’m sorry. I’m also sorry that this is not current events; I gotta watch myself when I get things from say, Facebook that may be 2-3 years old(as in this case). The good news is that the other officiant agreed to marry the couple.
Regardless of whether this was this year or a few years ago, that’s crazy. The whole point of going to a judge or justice of the peace or what have you is to have a legal wedding, not a religious one. If this person wants to be that picky about who gets married, he’s in the wrong job.