BRADDOCK, Pa. — A Pittsburgh-area mayor is finding himself in demand since agreeing to officiate a wedding ceremony for a same-sex couple last week.
Braddock Mayor John Fetterman tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he’s opened his home — a former car dealership he and his wife are renovating — to four same-sex couples so far, and was scheduled to marry a fifth couple Wednesday night.
Fetterman and at least one other mayor in Centre County have been performing the ceremonies since a clerk in Montgomery County began issuing dozens of marriage licenses to same-sex couples last month.
The suburban Philadelphia county is defying Pennsylvania’s marriage law, and has issued more than 100 marriage licenses to same-sex couples since July 24 because, they say, they want to be on the right side of history.
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Fetterman agrees, and said Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act is “a fundamentally unjust piece of legislation.”
State officials have gone to court to stop Montgomery County from issuing the licenses; the petition filed by the Health Department, alleges that D. Bruce Hanes, the register of wills in Montgomery County, “risks causing serious and limitless harm” in Pennsylvania and beyond.