I admire everyone who takes a stand against immorality.

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Shok

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http://www.foxnews.com/national/072700/vermont_civil_unions.sml

Turmoil in Vermont Over Civil Union Licenses

A town clerk who has led the opposition to Vermont's landmark civil unions law by refusing to issue licenses has appointed an assistant willing to do the job.

Corinth Clerk Susan Fortunati gave the job to a former town clerk, Jack Learmonth.

However, Fortunati and 18 others — including members of the Vermont Legislature — are continuing to press their lawsuit filed in May to overturn the statute that grants marriage benefits to same-sex couples.

Fortunati, who didn't return phone calls, has said it would violate her religious and moral convictions to issue licenses to gay couples and has contemplated resigning.

Under the law which took effect July 1, homosexual couples will qualify for virtually all of the roughly 300 rights, benefits and
responsibilities the state confers on married couples.

Attorney Matthew Staver, who is representing Fortunati and the other plaintiffs, said even though the statute gave Fortunati the
option of appointing an assistant willing to perform a duty she found repugnant, it still forces her to violate her moral
convictions.

Clerks in other communities are continuing to take a stand.

In Athens, Town Clerk Darlene Wyman has been added as a plaintiff in Staver's lawsuit.
According to an amended version of the lawsuit, Wyman said she had no choice because she "has no assistant town clerk whom she
can appoint to issue the civil unions license."


Shok

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"In 1789, when used without any qualifying adjective, 'the militia' referred to all citizens capable of bearing arms."
Akhil Reed Amar, Yale University
 
The only conscionable action this person can take is to resign. Public servants cannot pick and choose which laws they will implement. The law is the law. If the clerk cannot reconcile it with her principles, she should resign because she cannot do the job required, and spend her time working to change the law.

There was a similar case if Ft. Myers, FL when the Lee County Sheriff refused to enforce laws and injuctions against people protesting at clinics that offer abortions. A man sworn to uphold the law refusing to enforce the law? IMHO, he should have turned in his badge right then. It shocks me that he's still in office.

Would you tolerate a Jewish police officer who would not respond to 911 calls from Muslim families? Would you allow a vegetarian school board member to eliminate meat from the cafeterias? How about a public hospital that refused to deliver the babies of unmarried women?

I'll say it again. The law is the law. If you don't like it, the Constitution provides a mechanism for changing it. But a public servant's job is to implement the law, and if their conscience won't let them do that it's time to find another line of work.
 
Totally unrelated to RKBA and potential flamebait.

Watch your steps, folks. First sign of gay- (or anyone else) bashing, and it's history.
 
I expressed no position on the Vermont law or on homosexuality in general, only on the issue of conflict between a person's job and their ethical standards. Why do you think I'm not in advertising? :)

There is a relation to RKBA. The issue here is a public servant whose personal beliefs disagree with the law. Before "shall issue" permits, some jusridictions were notorious in that it was impossible to get a permit there because the local authorities were antis. In others, nobody got a permit except White guys. That's abuse of position, picking and choosing how to implement the law based on personal beliefs. This still happens some places.

Even with "shall issue", you can still get incidents when the presence of a legal handgun and a CHL could prompt an officer to give you and your car a thorough going over. You have the Pediatric Association prompting doctors to interfere with RKBA by refusing to treat kids from homes with legal guns. It would not surprise me to see insurance companies deny coverage or raise rates for gun owners.

In the larger sense, this is all about RKBA. We are governed by laws, including the 2nd Amendment. Officials who try to weaken the 2nd Amendment by abusing their position are indefensible, and should not be in office. Companies who discriminate fo rsocial engineering purposes are breaching faith with the public. Doctors denying treatment for the same reasons are violating the Hippocratic oath.
 
You see, Shok, the title of your post set the reader up to interpret it in a particular way. Your latest post smacks a bit of back-pedaling. You made very good points in #2, but I agree with Coinneach in that we all had probably best not pursue some of what was in #1.
 
Even if you hate gays you should be totally in favor of them having marriages. If they are married, that decreases the likelyhood of multiple partners and thus decreases the chances of disease. Also, if you don't force them to be straight, they will probably not reproduce, taken their genes out of the race. So what's the big deal?

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I twist the facts until they tell the truth
 
I have a gay friend ("my own Boy Scout leader", the guy taught me to drive and helped me learn to handle guns) who is only out to his closest friends (he's 38). He approves of VT changes but says that he'd be afraid of that much visibility...a reason similar to why some dislike CHLs.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dangus:
Even if you hate gays you should be totally in favor of them having marriages. If they are married, that decreases the likelyhood of multiple partners and thus decreases the chances of disease. Also, if you don't force them to be straight, they will probably not reproduce, taken their genes out of the race. So what's the big deal?

[/quote]

Well said, Dangus.
 
I am no gay rights activist but who told this town clerk she could do as she pleased. There are things like this that happen everyday. It's called life honey!!!! Deal with it. If I didn't do everything I didn't feel like doing or think was right I would be working fries and apple pies at McDonalds. She needs to find a new job.

People have these set views on gays, abortion, crime etc until it happens to them or their family. Then it's a different story. Another example of someone who knows how to live your life better than you do. She should run for congress.

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"Some people spend an entire liftime wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
 
I am shocked at the responses I've gotten. I guess I'm more conservative then the majority on TFL. The article was about gays but I admire Susan Fortunati's courage and share her moral convictions.

I don't hate gays! I don't think they have a right to marriage since God created marriage for man and woman. I don't think it decreases the possiblity of multiple partners significantly either. I believe its less about commitment and mostly about getting all the benefits that normal marriages get.

It is totaly unrelated to RKBA. While posting on TFL I shall observe political correctness reguading homosexual civil unions from this moment on.

Thank you,

Shok
 
From what I see at TFL, many here sound more Libertarian than necessarily conservative.
If people don't bother me and they don't engage in any actions (not just sexual) with those that don't or cannot give consent, then I have no problem with it.
 
Glenn and I were having a very civil discussion about this very topic when we were asked to stop, as its correlation with RKBA is too fuzzy.

While I applaud this woman's actions, following Rich's admonition (sp?) this thread's connection to RKBA is also too fuzzy to continue.

But, I'm not a moderator, so what does it matter? :D

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John/az
"When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
www.cphv.com
 
:rolleyes:

Political correctness (sic) is the last thing on our minds. You should know that by now, Shok.

With that in mind, this thread is useless.

*WHOOSH-CLANK*, and it's decapitated.
 
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