Galveston, TX | A Christian minister who owns a Texan wedding chapel was told he had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to a $10,000 fine, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.
The local minister, James Jefferson, claims he did not accept to marry Alex Thornhill and Adam Thornhill because they are cousins, not because they are gay, a remark the two lovers decry as “sexist” and “hateful”.
If marrying one’s first cousin is illegal in Texas, the new ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States rules that the denial of marriage licenses and recognition to same-sex couples violates the Due Process and the Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, a situation which renders the legal status of same-sex cousin weddings “unclear”, admit legal experts.
James Jefferson, a local Texan minister, faces jail time after refusing to marry Alex Thornhill and Adam Thornhill, two men that are also cousins
The two men hope the minister’s time in jail could send a positive message to the rest of the country.
“The fact that he refuses to perform his duties as a minister just because we are cousins shows how far America still has to go in favour of LGBT rights” explained Mr. Thornhill to local reporters. “Who cares if we are cousins, seriously? We will never have children anyways, so that is not the problem. The problem is that we are gay and that is the only reason he refused to wed us under God” he admitted, visibly angry.
The couple has made plans to marry in another wedding chapel although they expressed their bitterness at not being allowed to be married where their parents celebrated their own wedding.
“We had very found memories of this chapel where both our parents, my dad and Adam’s dad, were married, before this whole affair blew out of proportions” he commented, visibly bitter over the whole situation.
Local legal expert, Robert Willes, believes the recent Supreme Court ruling over the marriage of same-sex couples could open a “door of uncertainty” around the marriage of siblings and cousins, federal laws overwriting state laws, and creating a “wave of confusion” over legal terms.
