Monday, February 11, 2019

Efforts to restrict same sex marriage
After failing to advance last session, Republicans have again filed legislation to keep Tennessee from permitting same-sex marriages, a bill officials have estimated could cost the state more than $9 billion in federal funding. Known as the "Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act," the bill by Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, and Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station, says the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage is void in Tennessee because the state has already passed its own law and constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman. But that amendment is unconstitutional under the supreme court holding. The bill would prohibit government officials from recognizing any court ruling that affirms same-sex unions, and specifies they cannot be arrested for failing to comply with court orders that do so. It would also require the Tennessee attorney general to defend the state's law on marriage in any subsequent court challenge. In the event the marriage defense act did take effect, plaintiffs would likely challenge it in court, which could result in a federal district court ruling that the law cannot be enforced. "The far right’s dream scenario is this would go back before the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court would accept it," said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group that has previously opposed the bill.


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