Clerk’s Conundrum: Mo. Official Says She Will Not Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples Yet Still Wants to Keep Her Job
The Religious Right loves a good sob story, and it seems to have found a great one courtesy of a Missouri courthouse clerk who fears she may soon be required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
World Magazine, a publication affiliated with fundamentalist guru Marvin Olasky, recently detailed the story of Jennifer Schoenrock, a 56-year-old deputy clerk in Waynesville, Mo. Schoenrock is tailor-made for the Religious Right’s sympathy machine: Her husband is a disabled veteran, she has four (adult) kids, two grandchildren and is described as her family’s “breadwinner” with a salary of about $24,000.
World Magazine tells us that Schoenrock is facing a moral crisis. In November, a federal judge overturned the Show Me State’s ban on gay marriage, and if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds that decision in June, Schoenrock could be asked at some point to issue a license to a same-sex couple. And if that ever happens, her answer will be no.