Bill would allow Georgia clerks to duck same-sex marriage licenses

Published 9:45 am Thursday, January 14, 2016

ATLANTA – Legislation meant to safeguard people whose beliefs clash with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage is starting to pile up.

Georgia Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, will add a bill to the mix next week when he files his “First Amendment Defense Act,” which he said is patterned after proposed federal legislation.

Kirk wants to excuse probate clerks from having to sign marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples, should it conflict with their religious beliefs.

The bill still requires the elected probate judge to sign the license, meaning same-sex couples wouldn’t have to shop around to find a public employee to marry them.

Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who is elected, became a fixture of the national news and a hero to the religious right when she refused to lend her name to same-sex marriage licenses last year.

“This bill is intended to protect the millions of Georgians who still believe that the definition of a marriage is between a man and a woman,” Kirk said in an interview this week.

His proposal would also empower private faith-based organizations, such as adoption agencies, to withhold services from same-sex couples.

Kirk did not provide a draft of his bill, which he said is still a “work in progress.”

Unlike some states, where public officials have resisted same-sex marriage, Georgia’s officials haven’t fought the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer.

Chase Daughtrey, past president of the Council of Probate Court Judges, said he’s not aware of any probate clerk raising an objection. “We basically haven’t heard anything,” he said.

Then again, he said, it’s unlikely that all 159 of the state’s counties have had a same-sex couple walk through the door.

Cook County in south Georgia, where Daughtrey is probate judge, has had only one couple so far.

Solid numbers for same-sex marriages statewide aren’t available because Georgia’s probate offices just started recording gender information this month, he said.

Kirk said there should be a law in place, just in case, and he thinks lawmakers should move with a sense of urgency.

“Time is of the essence,” said Kirk, a former Southern Baptist preacher who still occasional fills in at the pulpit. “With this change in the law and the Constitution, we need this law.”

But he’ll have to win over colleagues, including some conservative Republicans, who are reticent to pass anything that conflicts with what is now law.

Some have also questioned whether this is an issue that might be better handled internally in the probate offices.

Kirk’s bill is just one of a handful before the Legislature related to same-sex unions.

Another, proposed by House Speaker David Ralston, says that clergy cannot be forced to “solemnize any marriage in violation of his or her right to free exercise of religion.”

That bill, called the “Pastor Protection Act,” was filed this week by Rep. Kevin Tanner, R- Dawsonville. It also blocks local government from forcing businesses to stay up open on days of rest.

Tanner filed another bill to prevent businesses from being forced to provide services for a wedding or to a religious group.

These bills are in addition to Sen. Josh McKoon’s holdover from last year, the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” That bill was held up in a committee last year after lawmakers added anti-discrimination language.

McKoon’s bill has drawn opposition from LGBT community, Democrats and a long list of businesses, including some of the largest in Georgia.

Rep. Stacey Abrams, the House minority leader, said Thursday that Georgia Democrats oppose “the state sanctioning of any type of discrimination.”

“Georgia has religious liberty,” Abrams said at a press conference announcing the Democratic caucus’ 2016 agenda.

“We were a state founded on that idea, and there is no need for there to be state legislation to restrict access for any community or restrict the opportunity for any community in the state of Georgia,” she said.

A new nonprofit, called Georgia Prospers, is also advocating for non-discrimination. Its rolls include Delta, the Atlanta Falcons, Home Depot and Mohawk Industries.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.