US: Trial to begin in case of gay couple who protested against being refused marriage licence
The trial in the case of a gay couple arrested in January for protesting against the decision to not issue them a marriage licences is set to begin today.
The Reverend Bojangles Blanchard and Dominque James were charged with criminal trespassing, after being arrested for refusing to leave the Jefferson County Clerk’s office.
When the office was closing they refused to leave, and chose to be arrested, rather than being issued a ticket, out of a “spiritual obligation”, to do the right thing.
“If we don’t act, we are accomplices in our own discrimination,” the reverend said at the time. “We have to resist.”
The trial was supposed to start in August, but was postponed because the jury pool was too small.
