Recently, a Texas Justice of the Peace took to Facebook to announce that he will only be performing “traditional marriages.” Bill Metzger added that his office is only open to families who are giving their 12-year-old daughters into marriage and offering livestock or land, in order to consolidate political power or to improve their social standing.
Oh, wait. My bad. That’s not what he said. I got confused by the *real* traditional background of marriage, and not some made-up privileged white guy bullsh*t. Here’s what he actually said:
“It is clear that any Justice of the Peace in Texas can refuse to perform a non-traditional wedding when that wedding can be performed by others. My sincerely held religious belief keeps me from being forced to conduct anything but a traditional wedding as a Judge per our Attorney General.”
To prove how right and smart he was, he included a bunch of photos of the Attorney General’s decree, as well as the link. (I guess he thinks it counts twice if he includes it two different ways.)
It seems clear that the Texas Attorney General is just as much a bigoted a-hole as Metzger, and is obviously in disagreement with the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The county attorney has already addressed this silly nonsense in a statement:
“A judge or justice of the peace is authorized to perform a marriage but is under no obligation to do so. However, once the judge elects to undertake the performance of marriages, the service must be offered to all (including same-sex couples) in a non-discriminatory manner.”
So there is some reason in Texas after all. It’s heartening to see the comments on Metzger’s Facebook post:
So, no, Bill, you don’t get to arbitrarily decide what constitutes a “traditional marriage” in your mind, based on a seriously bastardized version of your “sincerely held religious beliefs.” And you definitely don’t get to refuse to perform weddings that don’t fit into your made-up definition. I imagine you will come to understand that soon enough. And if not, I look forward to the court case.
Featured image via Facebook.
