While gay marriage has been legal in Nevada for well over a month few couples in the rural northeast part of the state are tyeing the knot.
According to Elko County Clerk Carol Fosmo just there have just been 3 or 4 licenses issued to same sex couples in the month and a half gay marriage was made legal.
This September a federal appeals court declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada, setting the stage for couples to marry in Las Vegas, the self-proclaimed wedding capital of the world.
But while Las Vegas and perhaps Reno have seen an up tick in business more rural venues have not.
In addition to Elko no gay couple has applied for a license in Ely, Eureka, or lander counties.
Th real debate about gay marriage will come if or when a wedding chapel, county clerk or business is sued for refusing service to a gay couple on religious grounds.
“I really don’t want
to think about it,” said Fosmo early this year before the ruling, “And I really don’t know what I would do if it came to that.”
A devout conservative Christian, Fosmo like many if not most rural Nevada office holders was active in her church long before she became active in politics. And for conservative Christians, Muslims, devout Mormons and Orthodox Jews gay marriage is not just distasteful but an abomination not only between the two people involved but for anyone facilitating the union.
While gay activist liken their quest for marriage equality to the civil rights era when anti-miscegenation laws banned marriages across racial lines the theological differences are profound. While there are a few Christian sects that discourage interracial marriage, mixed race marriage is not forbidden in the Bible or the Koran. Homosexual relations are, and the ban is explicit.
Where mixed race and gay marriage are similar is not in the religious texts but rather in the secular non-discrim- ination laws that govern the land.
Already several wedding businesses have been targeted by both gay rights activists and state equality enforcement officers for refusing to provide services to gay weddings.
The owners of Sweet Cakes in Oregon earlier this year for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple sighting their Christian faith for not serving the couple’s wedding.
The couple – Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman then filed a complaint with the state of Oregon for Sweet Cakes’ refusal to bake their wedding cake.
Since then, the family owned bakery has received vicious attacks for politely refusing to bake their wedding cake, and on August 30 announced they will be closing up their shop, instead choosing to bake in the safety of their home. The bakery will sell to anyone regardless of their sexual orientation, but will not bake a cake exclusively for a same-sex wedding, because it goes against their Christian beliefs.
Also in August the New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed a decision against a photography studio that was sued after refusing to photograph a same-sex couple’s commitment ceremony in 2006, saying the First Amendment does not permit businesses that offer services for a profit to choose whom to serve.
The threat of possible criminal or civil action against local JP’s and clerks who oppose gay marriage on religious grounds is in many ways similar to liberal JP’s who supported marriage equality privately in the soon to be by gone days when same sex marriage was against the law of the land with perhaps with
“I will always defer to state law,” said former West Wendover JP Lara Grant, when she was asked about performing gay marriage despite being in an open same sex union relationship her- self.
But for many JP’s on the other end of the political spectrum deferring to secular law may not be that easy. Officiating a gay wedding for many is not just a question of legal or illegal but one of heaven or hell.
