Tennessee Lawmakers Introduce Bill Nullifying Gay Marriage Decision
NASHVILLE, September 17, 2015- On Thursday, almost a thousand conservative Christians gathered at the Tennessee state capitol for a rally today that featured many Republican legislators prepared to fight the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage.
At the rally, State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) and State Representative Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) announced legislation calling for Tennessee to defend current state law and the constitutional amendment adopted by voters in 2006 specifying that only a marriage between a man and a woman can be legally recognized in the state. 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.
Mae Beavers is a long time Tea Party nut that has sponsored a number of crazy bills. In at least some cases, they just go to committee and die, but with a GOP super majority she’s getting more and more attention.
Very popular on the right wing talk radio stations, she’s anti-common core (with which her latest take is that it’s going to make the children all Muslims or something). Pretty much a mouthpiece for ALEC, anti-choice, the usual assortment of crazy.
Probably her biggest fiasco was a bill that she submitted in 2011
On a lighter note, State Sen. Mae Beavers introduced a copycat bill mandating that all presidential candidates present a “long-form birth certificate” in order to get on the ballot. In an interview, Beavers had to admit that she doesn’t even know what a “long-form birth certificate” is. Beavers also introduced “The Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act,” a bill introduced or passed in 35 other states, which proclaims
if a firearm and/or ammunition is made totally within the state of Tennessee, and stamped ‘Made in Tennessee,’ then the federal government has no jurisdiction over that item in any fashion so long as it remains in state and outside of interstate commerce.
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She’s also done the “No Sharia Law” thing and the “No Agenda 21” thing.
RBS
