South Carolina Lawmakers Want to Define Same-Sex Marriage as ‘Parody Marriage’

February 20, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC
Gay-Marriage-Ceremony-USA
LEXINGTON, SC - JULY 11: Rev. Andy Sidden marries Melissa Adams, 32, (R), and Meagan Martin, 30, during their wedding ceremony at a golf club on July 11, 2015 in Lexington, South Carolina. Gay marriage became legal in South Carolina in November 2014, more than 6 months ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court decision making it national law. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
John Moore—Getty Images

A half-dozen representatives in the South Carolina state legislature are pushing to change how the state defines same-sex marriages, reclassifying them as “parody marriages.”

The bill, which has been sent to the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee for review, is loaded with language likely to be considered incendiary by gay rights activists. It asserts that “marriage between and man and a woman arose out of the nature of things and marriage between a man and a woman is natural, neutral, and noncontroversial, unlike parody forms of marriage.”

Despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage was constitutionally legal, the South Carolina representatives say the First Amendment has jurisdiction over which types of marriages the state can endorse, respect, and recognize—rather than the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which the justices focused on.

The bill aims to allow South Carolina to no longer legally recognize gay marriages

It was introduced by representatives Steven Long, William “Bill” Chumley, Mike Burns, John McCravy, Josiah Magnuson, and Rick Martin.

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