The state of New York has decided it has a legal obligation to extend marriage equality to same-sex couples. Granby town clerk Ruth Sheldon has decided her religious beliefs will not allow her to comply with the new law, and has resigned her position.
Was it an election or an ordination that got her the job in the first place?
In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state does not have the authority or right to prohibit interracial or interfaith marriages. Countless clerks in Southern states cited their religious objections to that ruling and resigned rather than issue marriage licences to people they felt did not deserve them–people in whose lives they felt the government had a right to interfere in order to “maintain society’s values”. How unfortunate that Granby’s town clerk felt the need to revive that form of protest for the same reason.
Ms. Sheldon is entitled to her religious beliefs. It’s just sad that apparently they don’t call upon her to share the rights she enjoys with other people. If she can’t perform the job she was elected to do she should quit. I hope her replacement supports–or at least can accept–the state’s view that government should not be in the business of telling people who they can or cannot fall in love with.
Barry Bradley
San Antonio, TX
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