Tennessee Considers Straights-Only Marriage Option With No Minimum Age
have tried and failed multiple times to pass bills making specious legal arguments that the state doesn’t have to abide by the U.S.
Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling. Now they are trying to establish a separate marriage registration process for male-female couples who object to the regular process.House Bill 233 and the companion Senate Bill 562 would set up a way to register common-law marriages that are in keeping with the definition of marriage approved by Tennessee voters.
In 2006, voters amended the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The amendment was struck down, along with other state bans, in the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v.
Hodges ruling.Sponsors of the bills are painting them as harmless. “All this bill does is give an alternative form of marriage for those pastors and other individuals who have a conscientious objection to the current pathway to marriage in our law,” the House version’s lead sponsor, Republican Rep.
