Tennessee Governor Rolls Back Marriage Equality in Just Once Sentence

Tennessee has passed a law that, despite being just one sentence long, completely annihilates marriage equality in the state.

Republican Governor Bill Lee signed House Bill 878 into law on Wednesday. The measure simply states, “A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage.”

This means that any government official can refuse to certify a marriage license for any reason whatsoever. Current Tennessee law states that before a marriage is legally recognized, the couple must have their marriage license solemnized by a “minister or officer.” Marriages can be solemnized by religious leaders or government officials including judges, notaries public, and elected officials.

The new law does not affect anyone’s ability to obtain a marriage license. Republican state Senator Mark Pody, who sponsored the measure in the state Senate, argued last month that the bill was not discriminatory because people can still get marriage licenses.

“It just says that a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage,” Pody said.

But that, critics say, is exactly what undermines marriage equality. The law gives officiants the right to refuse to solemnize any marriage they disagree with. This means LGBTQ, interfaith, or interracial couples could be unable to officially marry in the eyes of the law.

“Let’s be clear—this bill is intended to exclude LGBTQ+ folks from equal protection under the law,” Molly Whitehorn, associate director of regional campaigns for the Human Rights Campaign, said last month.

Republican lawmakers introduced H.B. 878 last year. The original version of the bill stated that officials didn’t have to solemnize a marriage if that person had “an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”

Although marriage equality has been codified into federal law since December 2022, the original bill exploited a major loophole. The Respect for Marriage Act had been amended during the congressional debate process to say that religious organizations do not have to marry same-sex couples, nor are states required to actually issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Critics of the original version of the Tennessee bill said it was completely unnecessary. Tennessee law already says that religious leaders do not have to officiate weddings they object to. It appears state Republicans were listening, as they amended the bill to remove the redundant reference to religious objections, and now officials can refuse to officiate marriages for any reason, not just religious ones.

Because the bill is so broad and vague, it is unlikely to stand up to scrutiny in court. But not before it likely wreaks havoc on LGBTQ people’s ability to get married.

“Tennessee House Bill 878 would be patently unconstitutional,” Camilla Taylor, the deputy legal director of litigation for the LGBTQ legal advocacy group Lambda Legal, told CNN. “The Constitution prohibits public officials from discriminating against members of the public based on their personal beliefs.”

“Government officials can’t target people based on who they are and require them to use a different process to obtain marriage licenses relative to everyone else. The effect of forcing same-sex couples to go through a different process relative to everyone else—whether by demanding that they use a different door, or that they wait for a different public official to issue them a license would be to stigmatize them and communicate that their government thinks their marriages are less worthy than everyone else’s.”

Even Florida Representative Matt Gaetz seems to be growing tired of the impeachment probe into President Joe Biden, admitting on Thursday that the inquiry’s strongest line against Biden was overhyped.

“A few of those characterizations might have been a little oversauced,” Gaetz said on CNN.

The GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden has crashed and burned in a spectacular way since its main witness, an informant who claimed Biden had pocketed millions of dollars from a Ukrainian oligarch, was indicted by the Department of Justice for lying to the FBI. Since then, Alexander Smirnov has reportedly admitted to law enforcement that top Russian intelligence officials were involved in the smear campaign against the sitting president, and was taken back into custody on Thursday after a judge reversed an order that would have allowed him to roam free ahead of his trial.

Still, Gaetz didn’t seem totally ready to give up the goat just yet, claiming that the probe should pursue another angle in spite of previous comments he had made that shot down the probe from the get-go.

“But here’s the thing, you just acknowledged there’s actually no evidence of bribery,” responded CNN anchor Abby Phillips.

“I did not acknowledge that,” Gaetz threw back.

“You acknowledged that there’s no proof—there’s reports of bribery, but there’s actually no proof of bribery actually being consummated,” Phillips said.

“Here’s what you said, congressman, this was in October at a private fundraiser,” she continued. “You said, ‘I don’t believe that we are endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden. They’re trying to engage in a “forever war” of impeachment. And like so many of our forever wars, it will drag on forever and end in a bloody draw.’ Honestly, it seems like maybe you were right the first time.”

“When you’ve heard me speak about issues important to me, I haven’t led with impeachment,” Gaetz started, before Phillips interrupted to ask if House Republicans should drop the impeachment probe.

“I disagree with Jordan that this is what’s most corroborating,” Gaetz said, referring to the Burisma allegations founded on Smirnov’s lies.

“I think what’s most corroborating are the payments to Hunter Biden, and Frank Biden, and James Biden. I was deposing James Biden, and the way that they took money from the Chinese government would make your skin crawl,” he added, failing to connect his allegations to the sitting president.

“Everything that you’ve described is an inference. It’s basically saying, ‘Well, it must be,’ but … you haven’t actually given any proof of what you’re alleging,” Phillips replied.

“Is this impeachment inquiry even going anywhere if you cannot provide enough evidence?” Phillips continued, prompting Gaetz to respond to a quote from Jonathan Turley, a conservative attorney who testified before the House Oversight Committee that there was “not enough evidence” to support the impeachment.

“Yea, when Jonathan Turley said that, we should have asked Jamaal Bowman to pull a fire alarm. It was a devastating moment for House Republicans,” Gaetz conceded.

Gaetz’s Republican colleagues are still scrambling to revive the probe. On Wednesday, Jordan insisted to reporters that Smirnov’s indictment “doesn’t change the fundamental facts,” even though those “facts” were lies fed by the Russian government.

Conservative activist Jack Posobiec joyfully hailed the “end of democracy” at the Conservative Political Action Conference, further emphasizing Republicans’ apparent desire to completely overthrow America as we know it.

Posobiec, who helped popularize the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, appeared at CPAC’s opening day on Wednesday. He spoke during a panel moderated by former White House adviser and white supremacist Steve Bannon.

“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” Posobiec said as the event began.

“We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this, right here,” he said, gesturing to the crowd and holding up his fist.

As he spoke, Bannon laughed and said, “Amen!”

Posobiec then said, to cheers from the audience, “All glory is not to government. All glory to God.”

Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated he intends to embrace authoritarianism if he is reelected to the White House. Trump has paraphrased Adolf Hitler, floated horrifying and fascistic policy ideas, and joked (so he says) about being a dictator on the first day of his new term.

Trump’s closest allies in Congress have also indicated they would be willing to throw out the rulebook for him. Senator J.D. Vance and Representative Elise Stefanik, both reportedly on the shortlist for Trump’s running mate, have said they would have carried out a coup on January 6, 2021, to keep Trump in power.

Posobiec’s comments, even delivered in a lighthearted tone, are a chilling reminder that Trump and his supporters are not speaking rhetorically. They mean everything they say.

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is clearly gunning to win the award for “Dumbest Senator” a second year in a row, fully demonstrating that he has no idea what in vitro fertilization is, nor does he have basic knowledge about the recent Alabama court ruling that effectively banned the assisted family conception procedure from his state.

“Yeah, I was all for it,” Tuberville told reporters at CPAC on Thursday when asked about the state Supreme Court ruling that classified frozen embryos as children. “You just gotta look at everything going on in the country. It’s just an attack on families, an attack on kids. You know, anything we can do for the future of our young people, because they’re our number one commodity.”

“We need to have more kids, we need to have an opportunity to do that, and I thought this was the right thing to do,” he added.

“But IVF is used to have more children, and right now IVF services are paused at some of the clinics in Alabama,” prodded an NBC News reporter. “Aren’t you concerned that this could impact people who are trying to have kids?”

“Well, that’s for another conversation,” said a stumped Tuberville. “I think the big thing is right now you protect, you go back to the situation and you try to work it out to where it’s best for everybody. That’s what the whole abortion issue is about.”

“But this isn’t really about abortion, it’s about IVF and the concern that now families might not have access to it,” the reporter responded.

“But it’s about the same direction, but I agree,” Tubberville said, seemingly bewildered before doubling down on the party line. “People need to have access. People need to—we need more kids. We need people to have the opportunity to have kids.”

Yet one glance at the state’s recent politics would indicate that’s absolutely not a priority in the state. Infertility impacts one in five women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But last week, the Alabama Supreme Court decided that embryos created through IVF would be protected under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, classifying single-celled, fertilized eggs as children. The decision has spelled certain doom for IVF clinics across the state, three of which have already announced that they will no longer be offering the procedure for fear of being hit with wrongful death suits.

Still, that wasn’t enough for Tuberville to pay it any mind, and he at first mistook the judicial decision for a “bill” before admitting that he “hasn’t looked at it” and that he didn’t consider it a “big conversation” with regard to the general election.

“But women aren’t going to be able to have IVF to get kids already, in some places,” the reporter responded. “What do you say to them?”

“Yea, that’s unfortunate,” Tuberville said, repeating “unfortunate” a few more times.

“IVF is not a Democrat or Republican issue. Families across the board use it. What is your message to the Supreme Court if this does in fact stop families from using IVF?” the reporter asked.

“We don’t need that,” Tuberville said.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is frantically trying to quell the controversy over comments she made about IVF after an Alabama court’s recent ruling that frozen embryos are children.

“We don’t want fertility treatment to shut down, we don’t want them to stop doing IVF treatment, we don’t want them to stop doing artificial insemination,” Haley said on CNN on Thursday. “But I think this needs to be decided by the people in every state. Don’t take away the rights of these physicians and these parents to have these conversations.”

It was Haley’s second such attempt to explain away her controversial stance on the issue. On Wednesday evening, Haley blurted out a much more gibberish response.

“Well first off all, this is, again, I didn’t say that I agreed with the Alabama ruling. The question that I was asked is, ‘Do I believe an embryo is a baby?’” Haley said on CNN Wednesday evening. “I do think that if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby. And so yes, I believe, from my stance, that that is.”

But calling an embryo—the stage before the microscopic cellular mass is labeled a fetus—an unborn baby is not exactly correct.

In Handmaid’s Tale–esque fashion, Haley has tried to toe the line on the issue of third-party fertility in a futile effort to keep voters from turning away from her floundering campaign, even though she conceived her son via artificial insemination.

Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court decided that embryos created through in vitro fertilization would be protected under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, effectively classifying single-celled, fertilized eggs as children. The decision has spelled certain doom for IVF clinics across the state, three of which have already announced that they will no longer be offering the procedure for fear of being hit with wrongful death suits.

So when Haley initially claimed that embryos “are babies” and that she could see where the court was “coming from” on the issue, people were stunned.

“Embryos, to me, are babies,” Haley told NBC News. “When you talk about an embryo, you are talking about, to me, that’s a life. And so I do see where that’s coming from when they talk about that.”