MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD TODAY
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Tell members of the House Judiciary Committee to OPPOSE H-4949.
SC Equality Blasts “Bigoted” Bill to Redefine Same-Sex Marriages in SC
Bill would label same-sex marriages as “parody marriages”
Last week, Representative Steven Wayne Long (R- District 37) and a group of Republican legislators filed a bill to prohibit the state of South Carolina from recognizing same-sex marriages.
“The Marriage and Constitution Restoration Act” (H-4949) seeks to amend South Carolina law to separate nuptials into “parody marriage” and “marriage,” “to provide that parody marriage policies are nonsecular in nature; to prohibit the state from respecting, endorsing, or recognizing any parody marriage policy, or policies that treat sexual orientation as a suspect class; and for other purposes.” (In American law, a “suspect class” is a group more likely to be the subject of discrimination.)
SC Equality strongly condemned the bill and called on legislators to take a stand by calling this bill what it is, a bigoted and narrow-minded attempt to legalize discrimination.
“This is nothing more than an attempt by a first-term representative to pander to his far-right base in an election year,” said Jeff Ayers, Executive Director. “Bills like this are hateful, discriminatory and only make it more difficult to recruit new business to South Carolina. The LGBT community and our allies will not stand silently as Representative Long and the Keystone Cop Caucus paints a picture of South Carolina that is full of discrimination and bigotry. This issue has been settled by the United States Supreme Court. But if this bill were to pass, our lawyers are standing by to challenge it in the courts and the state will lose.”
The bill was sent to the House Judiciary Committee on February 15th. The measure has been sponsored by six Republican lawmakers: Reps. Steven Wayne Long, Bill Chumley, and Rep. Josiah Magnuson of Spartanburg; Rep Mike Burns of Greenville, Rep John McCravy of Greenwood and Rick Martin of Newberry.
To view H-4949 online click here.
No hearing date has been set. Once the date and time is announced we will send out another ACTION ALERT calling on everyone to come to the statehouse in force for a rally on the statehouse steps and to fill the hearing room to capacity. This is the time for you to show up and tell legislators WE WILL NOT STAND SILENT in South Carolina.