Tennessee should stop issuing marriage licenses in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that made gay marriage legal, state Rep. Rick Womick said.
“The state Constitution says that marriage is between one man and one woman, and my personal belief is that God says that marriage is between one man and one woman,” said Womick, a Republican who resides in Rutherford County’s Rockvale community southwest of Murfreesboro. “He created Adam and Eve. God didn’t create Adam and Winston.”
Although supporters of marriage equality rights for gay couples celebrated the high court’s June ruling, Womick said during a Tuesday phone interview that Tennessee should revert back to being a common-law state on marriage and stop issuing licenses for couples to wed.
“That would take the state out of the marriage business altogether,” said Womick, who last summer suggested Republican Gov. Bill Haslam be impeached for not taking a stand in opposition to the high-court ruling and urged the state’s 95 county clerks in a letter not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. “I think that’s probably the best approach given the legal climate.”
Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell, a Republican from Nashville, appointed a task force that includes state Rep. Mike Carter to examine how to respond to the court ruling, and the group will soon meet again on the issue, said Carter, a Republican from Ooltewah in Hamilton County in the Chattanooga area. (continue reading at Daily News Journal)