Box Turtle Bulletin

Two More California Counties Stop Officiating at Weddings

Shortly after Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett decided to block all civil weddings, two more California counties announced they would stop conducting civil weddings.

Butte County
The San Jose Mercury News reports

Butte County Clerk Candace Grubbs says the county can’t afford to continue performing wedding ceremonies. About 200 couples a year marry at the clerk’s office.

Grubbs said her decision has nothing to do with the California Supreme Court’s ruling last month legalizing gay marriage.

Although this seems suspect to me (Butte is a conservative county and voted 69% in favor of Proposition 22), Dagon (posting at Pam’s House Blend) spoke with Ms. Grubbs and believes her to be sincere.

After the Primary Election, her office found itself in a budget crunch. They had to leave positions unfilled. She had to look at all the duties of her job and see what she could NOT do and get by. Wedding ceremonies are a “may” ,not a “must do” for Clerk-Recorders. Plus, Ms. Grubbs sees herself as in competition with the private sector … not only religious folks, but also non-religious folk AND the “deputies for a day.”

In California, for a small fee through Ms. Grubbs office, ANYONE may officiate at a single wedding. They apply, get trained in how to fill out the paper work, and officiate at the one wedding. Way cool. Ms. Grubbs thinks this is so much more personal and pleasant an option than one of her staff, unknown to the couple, officiating at the nuptials.

Ms. Grubbs, then, is operating differently from Ms. Barnett who is refusing to authorize anyone to perform civil marriages.

Merced County
Merced County Auditor-Clerk Stephen Jones tried to play the Barnett game. But, like Barnett, his real intentions were revealed. The Modesto Bee:

In an interview Friday morning, Jones said his decision to stop performing weddings wasn’t made to avoid marrying same sex couples.

“This wasn’t about my beliefs on the issue,” Jones said.

Instead, he cited staffing and space shortages, saying his office no longer has the room or the people to perform marriages.

But those pesky emails revealed that Jones cherishes family values more than he does truth.

On Friday afternoon, the Sun-Star obtained an e-mail that seemed to discount Jones’ explanation that his office lacked space for marriage ceremonies.

Jones sent an e-mail Thursday morning to Dee Tatum, county chief executive officer, and the Board of Supervisors outlining his decision to stop performing weddings.

In his response, sent before Jones announced plans to stop performing marriages, Tatum wrote, “If space is a problem, then certainly we can make (room) 301 available and 310, as well as the board chambers when it is not in use.”

Tatum added, “I would suggest before you take this step to see if this is legally defensible. I place no value on whether marriages are right or wrong or should be conducted or not. We, the organization, will certainly be asked why after all these years we have taken this step.”

Although Tatum made his offer before Jones announced that he was stopping marriages, when the truth came out he suddenly discovered that his office could perform marriages after all.

Kings County
The county clerk in Kings County is relying on a technicality to try and sidestep the ruling of the state Supreme Court. (AP)

[I]n its May 15 decision the state Supreme Court also directed a midlevel appeals court that upheld the state’s one man-one woman marriage laws a year ago to issue a new order legalizing same-sex marriage, and it’s not clear when the appeals court must comply.

[T]he clerk in Kings County has indicated he does not plan to grant the new licenses, which say “Party A” and “Party B” where “bride” and “groom” used to be, until the Court of Appeals takes that step. Kings County’s legal counsel had advised the clerk to wait until the appeals court acts.

Kings County has posted a notice on its Web site saying it does “not anticipate any changes in our current marriage license procedures until such time as the lower court’s implementation rulings take effect.”

Kings County Clerk Ken Baird did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Bogus Budgetary Claims
Stephen Weir, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials scoffs at the claims by some county clerks about their budget causing them to deny civil marriages.

Contrary to the claim from Kern County that the ceremonies are a drain on resources, Weir said they make money for county coffers. Weir also serves as clerk in Contra Costa County.

“It is a financial plus,” said Weir, whose office makes $72,000 a year solemnizing marriages at $60 a pop. “It’s something you can do fairly easily, pays its own way and is a service you are providing to your customer.”

Of course, Weir is very excited about the change in wedding licensing for a personal reason.

He and his partner, John Hemm, want to be first at the counter that day. They plan to be the first to exchange vows and kisses in the conference room Weir converted into a wedding chapel that hosts 1,200 couples a year, but that he could never use.

“I’ve waited all of this time to be able to walk into my own office and stand in line and pay what used to be $64 and now is $85 to buy a license and have a ceremony,” says Weir, who also is president of the state clerks association.

“It’s a big deal.”

See also:
Kern Co. Supervisors Reject Anti-Gay Ordinance
Calaveras County Joins Kern and Butte
Barnett Breaks Her Media Silence – Stupidly, of Course
Chad Vegas – Kern Co. School Board Trustee’s Double Standard
Ann Barnett Annoys Local Bakersfield Media
Two More California Counties Stop Officiating at Weddings
CA Anti-Gays Either Completely Idiotic or Shameless Liars
No Non-Religious Marriages in Kern County
A Voice of Reason in Kern Co.
Kern Co. (Bakersfield) Clerk Ann K. Barnett Cancels Straight Weddings
More Bakersfield Bigotry
Bakersfield – Not a Place to Plan Your Wedding

Do You Know How To Say “I Do” In Norwegian?

If you do, then maybe you can confirm if this Norwegian news outlet is reporting that Parliament has passed the same-sex marriage bill in a late night vote.

At any rate, I do know that the bill came up for debate on Wednesday, and was expected to pass Wednesday evening — and it’s still Wednesday evening in Oslo. On August 1, 1993, Norway became the second Scandinavian country to provide for same-sex registered partnerships.

TiVo’s FOTF Web Page: Did It Stay Or Did It Go?

The plot thickens. Some people report that TiVo’s web site promoting FOTF’s affiliation returns a “page not found” error, while others say it loads fine for them. It’s a mystery. Here are some questions we’d like you to answer in the comments:

1. Does TiVo’s page load for you?

2. Is this the first time you tried accessing the web page at TiVo?

3. Did you clear your browsers’ cache and/or deleted cookies? Do you get a different result if you do?

4. Please specify which browser, operating system, and internet provider is giving you your results.

And here’s something else to try. When I click on this link, I get redirected to this page, which gives me the “page not found” error. Someone else wrote that the first page loaded up fine for them, but  they noticed the two different URL’s. So they went to the second link manually and got the same “page not found error.” But after visiting that second link once, now the first link won’t load for them. Any ideas?

“Thanks Dad!”

This Father’s Day message is from Tony K.

My father was an “old fashioned” man. After returning from a long army posting abroad he and my mother were strangers, so they had me to keep them together. It’s not strange that I ended up as a couples therapist.

He learned parenting from his father but decided that he wasn’t going to submit me to the continual brutal beatings that he’d had. Insteadhe needed to toughen me up — after all I was going to have to fight as a soldier, just like he had. Softness of any sort was going to leave me vulnerable and hurt. He didn’t want that. When I was three he decided not to touch me except in anger. To drag, push or hit. He never cuddled, held, praised or showed affection. It’s not that he didn’t love me. The experiences he’d had in Burma and India were so bad that wanted me strong and independent. This was his way of loving.

When he did touch me I would often end up on the other side of the room. I was terrified of him.

When I went to college he told me that I could never return to be at home with my family. I’d left them for an education and would never be able to part of them again. He was proud of me but terribly sad.

On a visit back I came out to my parents. He was standing in the kitchen by the sink. He went silent.

Then he opened his arms, stepped towards me and hugged me for the first time in twenty years. “You’re my son. I will always love you,” and then he went upstairs.

Later I introduced him to my boyfriend. Boyfriend? We’ve been together for thirty years. He and Dad shook hands and I saw my father change.

He loved hugs, he hugged me, my friends, my partner. He trusted Bryan to run his finances, give him advice, and he laughed with him, with me.

So often we do things in love that are totally wrong. My childhood was a nightmare of fear and terror. Not because he didn’t love me but that he loved and hoped so much that he wanted me never to hurt. He toughened me up.

It worked.

Genetics be damned. I learned to be very strong. Anyone who hurts my family, my friends, my people, my children finds out that I won’t stand for it.

I’m walking down the street. It’s “Fantasy Fest” in Key West. I have a friend on each arm — hell, I have a drag queen on each arm. Not, I have to say, very pretty ones and they keep falling off their heels. There’s a group a straight couples on a corner and as we pass they shout out something nasty. One of the girls pushes me forward. “Go get ’em Tony.”

I step forward. The straight couples run, the women squealing, the men (overweight and drunk) dive for doorways, run across the street. One is sick with fear.

“Thanks Dad!” I say.

He taught me to stick up for myself. I’ve been arrested on marches, sacked from jobs, attacked on streets, in buses, at libraries, bars, boats and bookshops. None of it hurts, not really. I’ve rescued
children, battered women, chained animals, abused gay teenagers, elderly people, the disadvantaged, distressed and derided.

“Thanks Dad!”

Do you have something you want to share for father’s day? Please send it to Superdad@boxturtlebulletin.com.

TiVo Pulls Web Page Promoting FOTF’s SuperDads Contest

Apparently, TiVo has been getting a lot of grief over the TiVo/Focus On the Family SuperDads contest. That’s the contest where everyone is supposed to submit an essay explaining why their dad is a “SuperDad,” with winners throughout the month of June receiving free TiVo’s. The problem is that several LGBT folks have been submitting essays explaining why their dads are SuperDads, only to find their submissions disappear into the ether. This has prompted tons of complaints to TiVo, as well as an online petition at the Family Equality Council.

Partnering to promote a discriminatory contest in which LGBT contestants are silently disqualified can set the company afoul of several states’ anti-discrimination laws — nevermind the public relations fiasco this move has caused. It looks like TiVo’s fealing the heat though. The web page on TiVo’s web site promoting FOTF’s contest affiliation used to be here, but now it’s missing — even though the contest goes on through the end of the month. (The contest page is still up at Focus On the Family.) But TiVo’s silent removal of a web page won’t be enough to gloss over the outrage. That will take a public apology and a reassessment of TiVo’s partnering relationship with FOTF.

Meanwhile, here at BTB we’re holding a truly inclusive SuperDads contest. Tell us why your dad is a SuperDad. You can send photos, essays, letters, drawings, videos, podcasts, or whatever else conveys a sense of what your father has meant to you. Your only limitation is your imagination. Just send it to Superdad@boxturtlebulletin.com.

The best submission gets a free BTB T-shirt. I know it’s not much, but maybe next year we’ll be able to afford a TiVo.

[Hat tip: Good As You]

Update: Some people are reporting that the site is up, while others say its down. A mystery. Here are some questions we’d like you to answer in the comments:

1. Does TiVo’s page load for you?

2. Is this the first time you tried accessing the web page at TiVo?

3. Did you clear your browsers’ cache and/or deleted cookies? Do you get a different result if you do?

4. Please specify which browser, operating system, and internet provider is giving you your results.

Love Won Out in Orlando

Exodus International and Focus On the Family pulled their roadshow into Exodus’ home turf of Orlando last weekend. A reported 500 people turned out for this edition of Love Won Out, which puts this attendance on the smallish side. Maybe too much competition from Orlando’s Gay Days, which was going on at the same time. At any rate, the good parents and friends at PFLAG were there to greet the struggling parents of gays and lesbians with coffee and donuts.

CA Anti-Gays either Completely Idiotic or Shameless Liars

Sometimes anti-gays do or say something so stupid, so plainly false, that you wonder who they think they’re fooling. Today’s example comes from the California anti-gay group Campaign for Children and Families and (where else?) Kern County.

The Bakersfield Californian reported on the County Supervisors meeting this morning. There, Randy Thomasson of the CCF presented an proposed ordinance for consideration

The ordinance states “no employee of (blank) County, and no elected or appointed official of (blank) County, may issue a marriage license to any couple other than a statutorily qualified man and woman.”

There Thomasson made the rather bizarre claim that the County Supervisors could override the decision of the State Supreme Court.

Randy Thomasson of Campaign for Children and Families said the county can pass the ordinance and stop all marriage licenses.

He said issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates the state constitution because the Supreme Court had no power to redefine marriage in ruling on Proposition 22 last month.

“Can you actually protect marriage in your county? Can you pass the ordinance? Yes, you can,” Thomasson said.

Really, Randy? The Supervisors can “protect marriage” in their county? Are you out of your mind or are you so dedicated to your campaign of bigotry that you are willing to say anything at all – no matter how obviously insane – to advance your agenda? Do you retain even the smallest smidgen of integrity?

Not being drooling vegetables, the Supervisors were not much impressed.

Enacting an ordinance that goes against the constitution and the decision of the California Supreme Court “doesn’t seem to withstand scrutiny” said Supervisor Jon McQuiston.

The Supervisors referred the issue to County Counsel and requested a report back on July 8 on whether such an ordinance would be legal. But in the spirit of saving time and trees, let me help with that inquiry.

No. It wouldn’t.

Next really stupid question?

UPDATE

Here’s a link to Thomasson’s proposed ordinance.

14. The Board of Supervisors specifically finds that marriage only for a man and a woman is the law of the land and the foundation of family and society in Kern County.

Hey, Randy, if your legal prowess didn’t impress the California Supreme Court, the Governor, or the legislature, why not try it on the Kern County Board of Supervisors. If they don’t bite, you might try the local grammar school debating club. Perhaps they can “specifically find” some laws your way.

See also:
Kern Co. Supervisors Reject Anti-Gay Ordinance
Calaveras County Joins Kern and Butte
Barnett Breaks Her Media Silence – Stupidly, of Course
Chad Vegas – Kern Co. School Board Trustee’s Double Standard
Ann Barnett Annoys Local Bakersfield Media
Two More California Counties Stop Officiating at Weddings
CA Anti-Gays Either Completely Idiotic or Shameless Liars
No Non-Religious Marriages in Kern County
A Voice of Reason in Kern Co.
Kern Co. (Bakersfield) Clerk Ann K. Barnett Cancels Straight Weddings
More Bakersfield Bigotry
Bakersfield – Not a Place to Plan Your Wedding

No Non-Religious Marriages in Kern County

We’ve been following the story of Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett and her decision to stop the county from providing the courtesy of civil marriages. The Bakersfield Californian now reveals that Barnett may well have stopped all civil marriages from being conducted in the county.

In county government, only Barnett has the power to perform civil marriages — or deputize others to do the ceremonies — and she has already decided to cut all marriages short at the end of this week.

And her office is refusing to deputize the public as well.

The only other civil [marriage] option for both gay and straight couples could be Kern County’s judges. It remained unclear Monday whether judges can or will do the ceremonies.

Barnett cannot stop same-sex marriages from being conducted and legally recognized in Kern County. But she can ensure that all marriages are conducted by persons whose authority is granted by reason of religious ordination.

Supervisor Don Maben has a personal reason why that is not acceptable.

Maben, whose Catholic father married his Protestant mother in a civil ceremony because their faiths didn’t match up, said the issue isn’t gay marriage.

It’s about the county’s commitment to serve all its citizens.

Barnett’s spiteful action is unlikely to have much impact on same-sex couples who are seeking to wed. And as the Rev. Bryd Tetzlaff of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kern County has promised officiate same-sex weddings free of charge, they will not incur any additional costs.

But Barnett has hurt those opposite-sex couples who do not have the extra few hundred dollars available or those who, like Maben’s parents, have religious reasons for seeking a civil ceremony.

And I have little doubt that Barnett has opened Kern County to litigation from atheists or other persons who will question whether the County has the right to deny recognition of marriages that are not affiliated with religion.

The LA Times also has an article that discusses how Bakersfield came to be the eighth most conservative city in the country.

See also:
Kern Co. Supervisors Reject Anti-Gay Ordinance
Calaveras County Joins Kern and Butte
Barnett Breaks Her Media Silence – Stupidly, of Course
Chad Vegas – Kern Co. School Board Trustee’s Double Standard
Ann Barnett Annoys Local Bakersfield Media
Two More California Counties Stop Officiating at Weddings
CA Anti-Gays Either Completely Idiotic or Shameless Liars
No Non-Religious Marriages in Kern County
A Voice of Reason in Kern Co.
Kern Co. (Bakersfield) Clerk Ann K. Barnett Cancels Straight Weddings
More Bakersfield Bigotry
Bakersfield – Not a Place to Plan Your Wedding

A Father’s Day Message

This letter for Father’s Day comes to us from Garrett.

Growing up with my father was a blessing. He taught me so much. He was my coach and best bud when I was younger. I came out after I graduated from high school and things kind of changed. I know that he still loves me and we still speak; though it seems to hurt him to have a gay son. Here is my card to him:

Dad,

Do you remember when you would let me drive the car, eating Megabite popsicles, and drinking cream sodas during our daily commute? I miss those days scouting the new town to live in before the rest of the family would make the move.

Do you remember jamming out to “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith when you would work on the Jeep? I remember running around occasionally screaming when I stepped on a grass burr. You thought I was singing to the song. Haha

Do you remember when I fell the first and last time on the red track gravel from jumping a hurdle? I guess it only took once…

Do you remember setting up the watering system for the football field grass with the rest of the coaches? I loved helping out with the clasps between each connection.

Do you recall me scurrying around with the wires to your headset during football games? It was so great to hear you instruct from the sidelines and use the signals for formations.

Do you remember how bad we felt when I blew coverage on that wide receiver and lost the game for the season? You made it seem like nothing and taught me to prepare and practice to perfection.

Do you recall how jealous the other students were because I got to each lunch with my dad everyday of school? It was like we were best friends who lived together.

Do you remember writing me passes to show up late to class because I didn’t want to go when the bell rang for the end of lunch? I got to hang out in your class room and watch the students laugh at your funny teaching.

Do you recall the corny face I had when I won the state championship? I remember the 5:30 AM practices and all the injuries, but you were there going through it all with me.

Do you remember when we’d say, ‘How ’bout them Yanks’ in front of the team? It was our way of saying ‘I love you’ without anyone else knowing.

I know that having a gay son is a hard thing for you to swallow right now. Please just know that I am and will always be your son who has some awesome memories to share with you.

How ’bout them Yanks Dad!

Happy Father’s Day

Love always,
Garrett

Do you have something you want to share for father’s day? Please send it to Superdad@boxturtlebulletin.com.

Boos and Cheers for a Homecoming King

Eighteen-year-old Kyle Hutchinson accomplished something that no one at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona, has ever done before. He was crowned king of the high school prom as an openly gay man.

Kyle’s parents were present when he was crowned king Saturday night amid cheers and boos:

“He kept telling me he was going to win, and he had convinced me,” said his mother, Doreen Hutchinson. “When they called his name, we heard the cheering, but then we immediately heard the boos,” she said. “My heart went into my stomach. It was so awful. My husband said he was expecting it, but I wasn’t prepared. It was so sad.”

Hutchinson said he felt bad that his parents had to hear his classmates who weren’t supporting him. But he also said their reaction is something he has known his whole life, and he wasn’t about to let it ruin his moment.

Kyle said he had always been picked on for not fitting in with the other boys in school. He came out to his parents on his sixteenth birthday, and he moved from his former high school to Red Mountain the following year, he started his first day of class being open about his sexuality. And while Mesa is known for having a large conservative Christian population, Kyle found that he had very few problems until his prom night.

Kyle was crowned king after winning the contest in a landslide, which is perhaps indicative of the changing attitudes among the younger generation — even among young conservative Christians, 80% of whom thought the church was “too anti-homosexual” in one recent survey.

BTB’s Father’s Day Celebration

This is one of my favorite pictures of Dad and me. Whenever I see this picture, it makes me think of two things: 1) how much fun it was to wrestle and climb all over him and 2) aren’t those drapes behind the couch fabulous?

This picture is one of the very few that I have of my Dad and me. Like many fathers of that generation, Dad was always the one behind the camera, not in front of it. And so while I have many wonderful memories of Dad (he died when I was in college), we actually have very few pictures of him. We have whole albums of vacation pictures where one would think he was never there. But of course, it’s impossible to think of those vacations without him.

Like the time we went to Florida for Christmas in 1972. The night before we were due to leave, my mother, my brothers and I all came down with a horrible case of the flu. But Dad was undeterred. He said we could just as easily be sick in Florida as in Ohio, and all in all he’d prefer Florida. So we packed up the Skylark and threw a couple of extra coffee cans in the back seat and off we went.

Ah, yes. Vacation memories…

Anyway, Father’s Day is coming up this year on June 15 — just one week away. I thought it might be nice to turn this blog over to you, and let you post a short (or long) tribute to your father — or gripes (not all fathers are perfect!) or hopes or whatever else stirs you. You can write that letter to your father you’ve been meaning to write, or you can tell us what happened when you did. Your story is all up to you. You can send photos, essays, letters, drawings, videos, podcasts, or whatever else conveys a sense of what your father has meant to you. Your only limitation is your imagination.

You can send your submissions to Superdad@boxturtlebulletin.com, or you can just leave them in the comments and we’ll re-post them with your permission. We can keep your name and other personal details anonymous if you like. Please say so if that’s what you prefer. The best submission gets a free BTB T-shirt.

So tell us. What makes your Dad so special?

A Voice of Reason in Kern Co.

Not every elected official in Kern County places their personal biases above their duty. County Supervisor Don Maben is now trying to clean up after the mess made by Clerk Ann K. Barnett… and he’s not lovin’ it.

“I think it sucks,” Maben said of Barnett’s decision to cease county clerk’s office weddings June 13. “The fact is this is a service that has been provided for a long time and to take away the rights of any citizen because of your personal beliefs when you’re a public official is wrong.”

I’ve still not determined whether there are other measures in place to accommodate non-religious marriages in Kern County, but it appears that Maben shares my concern.

A county supervisor is looking for ways to offer civil marriages — gay and straight — in Kern now that the county clerk’s office will no longer do it.

Supervisor Don Maben said this afternoon that on Tuesday, he will ask the county administrative office to look into options for providing the low-cost service.

In a related article, the Californian reveals that many residents avail themselves of the County’s services to avoid the cost (about $300) of hiring the services of a third party. About 20% of the county population lives below the poverty line.

See also:
Kern Co. Supervisors Reject Anti-Gay Ordinance
Calaveras County Joins Kern and Butte
Barnett Breaks Her Media Silence – Stupidly, of Course
Chad Vegas – Kern Co. School Board Trustee’s Double Standard
Ann Barnett Annoys Local Bakersfield Media
Two More California Counties Stop Officiating at Weddings
CA Anti-Gays Either Completely Idiotic or Shameless Liars
No Non-Religious Marriages in Kern County
A Voice of Reason in Kern Co.
Kern Co. (Bakersfield) Clerk Ann K. Barnett Cancels Straight Weddings
More Bakersfield Bigotry
Bakersfield – Not a Place to Plan Your Wedding

Can’t Wait ’til June 17 for Marriage?

If you want to be among the very first same-sex couples to marry in California, you won’t have to wait all the way until June 17th. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the pesky overnight wait is unnecessary and that licenses can be issued immediately after the ruling becomes final at 5:00 p.m. on June 16.

“At 5 o’clock, all county clerks can begin using begin using the (new marriage) forms,” said Suanne Buggy, spokeswoman for the vital records office. That office sent an advisory to all 58 California counties this afternoon informing county clerks of the determination.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said earlier this week he wanted to start marrying couples “the minute” the ruling takes effect.

Not all clerks will be issuing marriage licences after closing time and some will look for any chance to rain on the parade. But as the day grows closer, I’m sure that other counties will jump to be part of history.

Liberty Counsel Needs Refresher Law Class

I’m not an attorney, nor do I play one on the internet. However, even I can see through the latest claim by the Liberty Counsel.

Liberty is the ugly stepchild of the anti-gay legal badgering movement. Alliance Defense Fund gets all the big headline-grabbing cases, leaving the offshoot of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University playing second fiddle. And perhaps this latest play by Mat Staver, Liberty’s founder and spokesman, illustrates just why.

In a fundraising plea disguised as an “alert”, Staver responds to the California Supreme Court’s decision to deny a stay or reconsideration of their decision.

Today, the California Supreme Court denied the Petition for Steay and for Rehearing in the California marriage cases.

The 4-3 decision was split along the same lines as the original May 15 ruling with Chief Justice George and Justices Kennard, Werdegar and Moreno in the majority. Justices Baxter, Chin and Corrigan dissented.

But a less casual look at the ruling suggests that Staver is either careless in his reading or is being deliberately deceptive.

Though Staver rails at “a handful of judges”, it appears to my reading that the stay had no support at all. While three judges were of the opinion that rehearing should be granted, there is nothing in the ruling that tells me that the decision to deny stay was anything less than unanimous.

While that declaration of Staver can be forgiven as perhaps inattentiveness, what he says next seems to be downright ridiculous.

The cases now will return to the California Court of Appeal for the Supreme Court’s order to be implemented. Liberty Counsel is considering filing a petition with Court of Appeal requesting a stay pending the outcome of the November vote on the state marriage amendment. The Court of Appeal panel previously upheld the state’s marriage laws.

Staver seems to be implying that the Court of Appeals can override the decision of the California Supreme Court. I find it difficult to fathom that a dean of a law school – even one catering solely to conservative religious adherents – can suggest such a thing.

The role of the Court of Appeals at this time is not a contemplative or judicial one. It is an administrative role to facilitate the decision of the state’s Supreme Court. The state’s highest court has stated that its decision will become final on June 16th at 5:00 p.m. and no inferior court has the authority to use administrative delaying tactics to thwart its will.

Should the Court of Appeals fail in its duties – a highly unlikely possibility – County Clerks would simply go ahead in issuing licenses and recording marriages as directed by the decision of the highest court.

If Staver thinks this will be a successful tactic, he needs to take some refresher courses in constitutional law. If, on the other hand, he is simply creating artificial hype so as to give him a reason to beg his donors for money, he needs to retake a course in ethics.

Kern Co. (Bakersfield) Clerk Ann K. Barnett Cancels Straight Weddings

Yesterday we told you of Kern Co. Clerk Ann K. Barnett and her decision to cancel all weddings officiated by county officers so as to avoid allowing gay couples the same privileges as straight couples. Today the Bakersfield Californian provides more information about the extent she went to accommodate her biases.

At her request, County Counsel Bernard Barmann filed a brief with the California Supreme Court opposing implementation of the May 15 ruling allowing gay marriage.

She tried to resign her elected position as county clerk — while keeping her positions as auditor-controller and elections boss. “She really wanted to get rid of it,” Barmann said.

And finally, when the ruling came down Wednesday that she had to license same-sex marriages, she decided to stop performing all weddings. That involved canceling 25 heterosexual ceremonies that had been scheduled after June 13, according to her staff.

The Californian also obtained email correspondence between Barnett’s office and the anti-gay legal advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund.

Our question is, now that the Supreme Court has refused to stay its decision, will Alliance Defense Fund defend the County Clerk if she ceases performing all marriage ceremonies as of 5:00 pm on June 16th?

The newspaper also disproved Barnett’s claims about the cost of conducting ceremonies and space requirements.

I don’t fault Barnett for seeking to find some method by which she would not be called to perform a ceremony which she found to be contrary to her religious beliefs. And if that means that she personally would not perform any ceremonies at all, that would be fine with me.

But Barnett did not limit her actions to herself. She declared that no persons authorized by the County will perform weddings. And if that is an inconvenience to the 25 heterosexual couples, all gay couples, and those clerical officials who would delight in bringing joy to couple of all orientations, well that’s just too bad. Everyone must pay the price for Bennett’s disappointment and all her employees must work according to Bennett’s religious dictates.

It appears that County Clerks are not obligated to provide civil ceremonies and indeed some counties do not. This, however, raises the question – are all marriages in Kern County now religious ceremonies? Is there no mechanism by which atheists or others can seek a civil wedding? If, say, a divorced Catholic wishes to re-marry are they required to seek officiation by someone whose sole qualification is that they are the practitioner of some other faith?

This may not be the last we hear of this story.

[Hat tip: Stefano]

See also:
Kern Co. Supervisors Reject Anti-Gay Ordinance
Calaveras County Joins Kern and Butte
Barnett Breaks Her Media Silence – Stupidly, of Course
Chad Vegas – Kern Co. School Board Trustee’s Double Standard
Ann Barnett Annoys Local Bakersfield Media
Two More California Counties Stop Officiating at Weddings
CA Anti-Gays Either Completely Idiotic or Shameless Liars
No Non-Religious Marriages in Kern County
A Voice of Reason in Kern Co.
Kern Co. (Bakersfield) Clerk Ann K. Barnett Cancels Straight Weddings
More Bakersfield Bigotry
Bakersfield – Not a Place to Plan Your Wedding