The panic of the extreme right over marriage equality continues to bubble in ugly ways. And Oklahoma appears to be the epicenter of The Crazy.
Item: Oklahoma rep thinks marriage should be restricted to religious practitioners.
Under House Bill 1125, judges would no longer have the power to officiate at marriages and court clerks would not issue marriage licenses. The clerks' only responsibility would be to file the licenses that couples received through their officiating clergy member. Of course, clergy can grant licenses according to their own religious beliefs, which again leaves a lot of gay couples on the outside looking in.Item: ever reliably anti-gay Oklahoma Rep Sally Kern has a trifecta of anti-gay bills. In addition to outlawing taxpayer's money supporting gay marriage licenses, and legalizing ex-gay therapy, Rep Kern wants to specifically enable anti-gay discrimination:
Representative Russ, (photo right) however, has a solution for those who aren't religious or aren't able to receive religious approval.
"They don't have a spiritual basis for a marriage and don't want to have a clergy member or a priest or someone involved in the spiritual aspect, then they can file an affidavit of common-law marriage," Rep. Russ told reporters.
House Bill 1597 would make it legal for businesses to flat-out refuse service to LGBT people:Supermarket, hotel, paramedic, hospital: you can all discriminate against Teh Gayz. Leave 'em dying on the street, if you want.
No business entity shall be required to provide any services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges related to any lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person, group or association.
This is reminiscent of the brief effort in Washington to pass a similar bill, at which a legislative staffer commented if a supermarket refuses to sell food to gay couples, they can just grow their own.
Animus, much?
Meanwhile, not in Oklahoma ,Ben Carson warns gays ominously that if they keep asking for wedding cakes, they might be poisoned.
