The state House Children and Family Affairs Subcommittee will hear a bill next week that challenges the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) introduced House Bill (HB) 1473 in January to allow private citizens and organizations to legally refuse to recognize same-sex marriage.
HB 1473 would legally protect these entities from being disciplined for standing up for their traditional belief in marriage.
As an example, this bill proposal would legally protect a private wedding venue from providing service to a same-sex marriage event because of the venue’s belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
If this bill became law, it would take place on July 1.
HB 1473 is a direct challenge to the Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court said state laws preventing same-sex couples from marrying each other violated the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.
In 2024, Tennessee passed a law stating, “A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage.” This means that people who hold traditional marriage views are not required to perform a same-sex marriage.
Two years before this, Tennessee Republicans introduced a bill that would have excluded same-sex couples from a new common law marital contract in the state. Same-sex couples could still obtain a marriage license, but only traditional marriage couples would have been able to get the new common law marital contract. The bill never made it through the Legislature.
This week, nearly 50 conservative organizations announced they were starting a campaign to challenge the Obergefell ruling.
“Since the redefinition of marriage a decade ago, we’ve seen the consequences: parenthood treated as replaceable, and children deprived of the unique love and guidance only a mother and father can provide,” Katy Faust, Them Before Us founder, said in a statement, according to The Daily Signal.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com.
