Politics

NC Republicans are trying to ban marriage equality because ‘perverted acts’ shouldn’t be protected

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Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are trying to ban marriage equality, and one of them got so upset at a constituent complaint that he told the constituent to “tell it to Satan.”

State assembly Republicans in North Carolina are trying to pass HB 65, also known as the Marriage Reaffirmation Amendment Act. The bill would ban marriage equality in the state and tell state officials to ignore the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision.

Related: This guy’s lawsuit said that the rainbow flag is a religious symbol. He just lost.

The bill would also label marriages between two people of the same sex “parody marriage” and claims that marriage equality negates the “scientifically obvious biology of the human species” and is “part of the religion of Secular Humanism.”

Well, that didn’t sit well with Leo, who sent an email to North Carolina Representatives Larry Pittman and Mike Speciale, who are cosponsors of the bill.

Leo wrote that their bill was unconstitutional and pandering to “old fashioned intolerant evangelicals.”

“Two people getting married in no way affects me or my life and nor does it affect yours,” Leo wrote. “The fact you have to keep yourself relevant by way of pandering to intolerant old people who think the bible should be the law of the land is shameful.”

Pittman and Speciale actually responded.

Pittman wrote that he does not need to “change with the times” because “God is perfect.”

“If you have a complaint about that, tell it to Satan when you see him,” Pittman wrote.

Speciale’s response wasn’t much better. He wrote that he supports “God, Country and Family.”

“Family is what happens when a man marries a woman and they have children,” he wrote, adding that he does not want to protect “every perverted act that people may decide to enter into.”

Perhaps it’s not surprising that the cosponsors of a bill that basically says “Ignore the Supreme Court, taking away people’s rights is more important than the law” would write such emails.

If the language of the Marriage Reaffirmation Amendment Act sounds familiar, it’s because South Carolina, Wyoming, and Kansas Republicans have also introduced similar bills to defy the Supreme Court, argue that marriage equality is a religious sacrament that the government can’t participate in, and label marriages “parody marriage.”

The bill would probably be vetoed by North Carolina’s Democratic governor, but if it passes in a state it may be used to challenge the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision.

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