N.C. Lawmakers Seek to Nullify Marriage Equality

Less than two weeks after the partial repeal of the infamous House Bill 2, conservative North Carolina legislators have introduced another virulently anti-LGBT measure -- directing the state government to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.

House Bill 780, filed today, would declare that the ruling "is null and void in the State of North Carolina," reports The News & Observer of Raleigh. It likely has little chance of passage; it is sponsored by four of the House's most conservative Republican members, whose bills often don't get a hearing because the leadership opposes them, the paper notes.

Titled the Uphold Historical Marriage Act and quoting the Christian Bible, the bill says the high court's 2015 decision "exceeds the authority of the court relative to the decree of Almighty God that 'a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh' (Genesis 2:24, ESV) and abrogates the clear meaning and understanding of marriage in all societies throughout prior history."

It would restore Amendment One, the state constitutional amendment struck down, along with other states' bans on same-sex marriage, in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Its sponsors are Reps. Larry Pittman, Michael Speciale, Carl Ford, and Mike Clampitt.

Some other states have sought to evade the ruling, without success. A bill called the Natural Marriage Defense Act has been reintroduced in Tennessee this year after being killed in a subcommittee in the previous legislative session. And in Alabama, Chief Justice Roy Moore urged county probate judges, who are in charge of marriage licenses, to defy the ruling; he has now been suspended for the remainder of his term. He is appealing the suspension.

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