Star-Spangled Protest of Marriage Equality Quickly Fizzles

Commissioners in Dent County, Mo., who voted unanimously to lower flags in protest of marriage equality saw their order very differently by the dawn's early light.

What so proudly they hailed at the twilight's last gleaming now will be undone. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles told local paper The Salem News the commission will rescind the order "out of respect for veterans and those currently serving in the military."

An online petition at Change.org with 1,179 signatures may have also had some influence.

Skiles and his two fellow commissioners voted Monday to order flags at the Dent County Courthouse and Judicial Building to be flown below half-staff on the 26th day of every month, from July 26 until June 26, 2016.

The symbolic gesture was to convey an observance of mourning, proposed by Skiles.

"I had this feeling like when someone near and dear has passed away -- not the same, but similar," the cattle rancher told BuzzFeed.

Skiles told the website this ruling "signals the death of state rights and the death of any recognition of basic Christian beliefs in regards to the sanctity of marriage. Our country is looking more and more like Sodom and Gomorrah you read about."

In a letter, entered into the public record Monday, he condemned the marriage ruling as "the U.S. high court's stamp of approval of what God speaks of as an abomination."

Skiles wrote that he hoped "all who see these flags at this lowered position be reminded of this despicable Supreme Court travesty."

A special session is planned for Tuesday or Wednesday. Skiles told the News that Commissioners Gary Larson and Dennis Purcell are expected to vote with him to remind the order.