Kentucky wants to create separate marriage licences for straight couples
Kentucky politicians hope to create two kinds of marriage licences, one type for gay and the other for straight couples.
Senators in the home state of legendary homophobe Kim Davis, hope to create one type of licence which reads “bride” and “groom”, and a second which reads “first party” and “second party”.
The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Stephen West, who claims that all couples can use either form.
In addition, the form would also remove the name of the issuing county clerk, and request the couples to indicate their genders.
The reason Senator West gave for the gender requirement was for the benefit of historians and genealogists.
The bill was passed earlier this week by a Senate committee, and comes five months after county clerk Davis was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.
Senator West says he consulted Davis on the bill.
After spending five days in jail last year for ignoring a string of court orders instructing her to allow gay couples to marry, the Rowan County Clerk returned to work.
However, on her return, she altered marriage licences issued to same-sex couples by her deputies, removing her name and the name of the county.
“The clerks seem to want this. They have clients and customers who would prefer the other form. No one is precluded,” West said.
The executive director of the Fairness Campaign, Chris Hartman, said “separate has seldom been equal”.
An alternative has been offered by Democratic Senator Morgan McGarvey, who said tick boxes could be used on the licences to indicate “bride”, “groom” or “spouse”.
“You can avoid confusion and avoid the potential for any disparate treatment of groups,” he said.
A court earlier this week ruled that Kim Davis is now compliant with the law – as she is no longer blocking same-sex couples from marrying.
