Although a legal challenge is expected if the legislation is passed, State Representative Mark Pody believes the Tennessee General Assembly should take a stand against a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same sex marriage.
Speaking at a DeKalb County GOP sponsored picnic Saturday, Pody said the “Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act”, sponsored by Pody and State Senator Mae Beavers, calls for Tennessee to defend current state law and the constitutional amendment adopted by voters in 2006 specifying that only marriage between a man and a woman can be legally recognized in the state.
Representative Pody said the push defining marriage as between a man and woman in Tennessee had its origins when Democrats still controlled the legislature. “I want to compliment the Democrats on something. Do you know what they did? They passed something that says marriage should be between a man and a woman. And that passed in Tennessee under the Democratic control. We know that in June that five Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that. But we had a rally down at the capitol (Nashville) on Thursday. There were a thousand people. And we filed a bill to go back and say marriage in Tennessee should be between a man and a woman. I know it’s going to be challenged immediately once its passed but we want to at least be in this battle. Some may say you’re fighting the Supreme Court. But if we’re passionate about something and we believe in something, it means you fight. Even David, who said he was going to fight Goliath. He went out and fought. We filed that bill and I think we’ve got a good shot at doing something with that. We want to be heard on the first amendment to see what we can do on that ruling. We believe two of the (Supreme Court) Justices that ruled on that (same sex marriage) should have recused themselves. They had already performed same sex marriages and because they did that they had a public stance saying they were in favor of it. I don’t think they were neutral in hearing the case. I believe they should have recused themselves. We want to get back in front of this Supreme Court,” said Representative Pody
The “Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act” rejects the Obergefell v. Hodges decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June giving same sex couples the fundamental right to marry and calls on the attorney general and reporter to defend any state or local government official from any lawsuit to the contrary.
House Bill 1412 / Senate Bill 1437 also aims to protect court clerks and ministers who have religious objections to marrying same sex couples from prosecution or civil action.