A Tennessee county is expected to vote
next week on a resolution that condemns same-sex marriage.
According to the Knoxville
News Sentinel, the symbolic resolution cleared a committee of
the Hamblen County Commission on Monday with a 7-1 margin and is now
headed for a final vote.
The resolution calls on state lawmakers
to reject and appeal the Supreme Court's landmark 2015 ruling in
Obergefell that found that gay and lesbian couples have a
constitutional right to marry.
Commission Chairman Louis “Doe”
Jarvis, the lone no vote, told the paper that Patriot's Brigade of
Tennessee, the right-wing group that proposed the resolution, is
“playing on Christianity” to further its agenda.
Earlier this year, two
Republican lawmakers introduced a bill that sought to define marriage
in Tennessee as a heterosexual union. The legislation was
ultimately tabled until next year.
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of
the ACLU of Tennessee, said in an email that such resolutions
undermine “our American value that the government should treat
everyone equally under the law and not discriminate.”
“The United States Supreme Court’s
decision in Obergefell ensures that loving, committed same-sex
couples in Tennessee and nationwide who want to build and share a
life together will be treated with the same respect and dignity as
everyone else.”
“The decision made clear that the
freedom to marry is a fundamental right protected by the United
States Constitution and – regardless of any Hamblen County
commissioner's personal desire to discriminate – this decision is
the law of the land,” Weinberg added.