re: #375 ladycatnip

It’s my understanding that if this becomes law, then any organization or church that refuses to marry gay couples would open themselves up to a discrimination lawsuit.

That’s nonsense — consider the fact that Catholic priests routinely refuse to officiate at second marriages involving divorced persons, and Orthodox Jewish rabbis generally will not perform interfaith marriages between a Jew and a Gentile. And yet no one in America has ever brought a successful discrimination lawsuit to challenge these religious policies. (That First Amendment is a pesky thing!)

On the other hand, it is plausible that, for example, a Catholic hospital could face a lawsuit if it refused to provide spousal benefits for the same-sex partner of a hospital employee. In hopes of avoiding this, some of the New England states that have decided to officially establish Same-Sex Marriage have also instituted religious-exemption clauses. (Whether these exemptions will survive legal challenges in the long run remains to be seen.)

In short, it’s worth worrying about the possibility that religious bodies might be forced by lawsuit to recognize the legal status of same-sex couples in a civil marriage. But there’s no point in fretting over the scenario of churches being forced by the State to marry gay couples, ‘cause that ain’t gonna happen under American law.