GET ME REWRITE: Move your business to Tennessee, where a GOP clown show has taken the state legislature hostage

 

Headline;  WPLN, 4/5/2022

 The Senate is scheduled to hear a bill that currently would do away with age limits for marriages between a man and a woman. On social media, the legislation drew backlash. Tweets criticized Republicans for creating a legal loophole for older men to marry underage girls. 

But, Sen. Janice Bowling’s testimony makes clear that the bill’s true focus is same-sex marriages. 

“It just declares that the marriage between a man and a woman is not a creation of the state government or its statutes, it is a common law right,” said Bowling, R-Tullahoma. 

That’s a fancy way of saying ministers will no longer have to sign off on same-sex marriages, which the U.S. Supreme Court made legal in Tennessee in 2015.

Popular Information email newsletter, 4/7/2022

The Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), a right-wing advocacy group, has been pushing for the change. David Fowler, a former state senator who heads the group, says the bill is necessary for people with conscientious objections to same-sex marriage. "As a minister, I can't sign and affirm something that is contrary to my conscience," Fowler said. In Tennessee, "marriage certificates do not require a minister’s signature."

Think about what will happen if the GOP wins the majority in the Senate and House this November.