A town clerk in western New York has resigned in a bid to avoid being forced to sign marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples. The clerk has cited religious objections to same-sex marriage marriage.
Laura Fotusky, was the town clerk in Barker, on the western side of New York state told the media before her employers that she had sent in her resignation. She’ll step down on 21st July, just three days before New York becomes the sixth and largest state in the US to allow gay nuptials.
The current New York governor and supporter of equality Andrew Cuomo signed the same sex marriage law last month. The bill was narrowly passed in the Republican-led state Senate, after a small number of republicans went against GOP orders and voted to approve the bill. Its approval in New York has been seen by many as a catalyst for gay marriage elsewhere.
Much of the debate in New York focused on the scope of protections for those opposed to same-sex marriage. The new law exempts religious groups from performing same-sex marriages but does not extend those protections to individuals, including government employees.
Fotusky stated in her letter that she said she believes the Bible takes precedence over man-made laws. "The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures. Since I love and follow Him, I cannot put my signature on something that is against God," she wrote, "I would be compromising my moral conscience if I participated in the licensing procedure,"
According to New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a conservative Christian nonprofit group that circulated Fotusky's letter to the media, she is the first clerk in the state to resign over objections to same-sex nuptials.
But she is not the first to raise concerns. Two weeks ago, the town clerk in the Syracuse suburb of Volney cited her own religious objections and requested that outside help be brought in to sign same-sex marriage licenses.
Cuomo, who had made the legalization of same-sex marriage a top priority this year, told reporters on Tuesday that he agreed with Fotusky's decision to resign because government workers have a responsibility to enforce the law.
"When you enforce the laws of the state, you don't get to pick and choose the laws," Cuomo said.
“Of course, she is entitled to hold her views, in respect of religion. However, being held up as a champion of religious freedoms by Constitutional Freedoms is a dangerous thing. She and they mat well believe “bible takes precedence over man-made laws” I therefore expect them to call for the death penalty for anyone who works on a Sunday and will sell their first born daughters in to slavery – both of which are both laws as per the bible” Said gay rights commentator Jason Shaw.
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