Roughly 75 opponents of gay marriage
rallied over lunch in Orem, Utah on Wednesday.
The gathering, held at the local Golden
Corral, was organized by the Utah Eagle Forum. Social conservative
Phyllis Schlafly founded Eagle Forum in 1972. The national group
claims membership of 80,000.
Speaking at the gathering were Utah
Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka, GOP Rep. LaVar Christensen and
Utah County Clerk Bryan Thompson. Utah County was one of the last
counties to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples after a
federal judged on December 20 struck down Utah's marriage ban as
unconstitutional.
On Monday – after 17 days of legal
same-sex marriages – the Supreme Court issued a stay in the order
as an appeal moves forward. Two days later, the administration of
Governor Gary Herbert said it would
not recognize the more than 1,300 marriage licenses the state issued
to gay couples.
Thompson told the crowd that his
decision to resist the judge's order was supported by Utah County
officials, including its attorney.
“I was saddened, it got down to the
point that it was just Box Elder County and I,” Thompson said.
Ruzicka fought back tears as she read
the governor's announcement that the state would not recognize the
marriages of gay couples. “Prayer and fasting really works!” she
said.
“Activist judges that roam at will
through their imaginations to interpret our Constitution, they're a
great danger to our time,” said
Christensen, who authored the amendment. “You do not go to a
federal courthouse to get a marriage license. What does that tell
you?”
Salt Lake City's Fox 13 anchor Max Roth
tweeted a photo
of a sample letter being passed around at the meeting calling on
Republican State Senator Stephen Urquhart to withdraw a proposed bill
which seeks to outlaw discrimination in the state based on sexual
orientation and gender identity.
“We raise our voices in extreme
rejection of the Anti-Discrimination Bill that you sponsored,” the
letter reads in part. “God's word says he created man and woman in
his image. Any confusion a man or woman has for their gender other
than the gender that they were born with, is their personal
weakness.”
“Deviant sexual life styles are
immoral. We urge you to withdraw your anti discrimination bill and
any further activity in that direction. We discriminate against
immorality, theft, dishonesty, murder etcetera and as our
representative in the Utah Senate your oath of office is to uphold
the Constitution.”
Boldly confessing they impart these laws with a religious animosity and believe they have the right to oppress anyone who doesn't subscribe to their ideology.
How can the Supreme Court possibly justify their religion based animus?
Where is the freedom from religious persecution guaranteed by the constitution of the United States?
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