New York’s gay weddings victory lap has not extended to all parts of the Empire State, with a rural town clerk determined to not sign any same-sex marriage licenses.
Barbara MacEwen, the town clerk in upstate Volney who is responsible for signing marriage licenses in the town, said she’s morally opposed to same-sex weddings and does not intend to affix her signature to any marriage documents for gay or lesbian couples.
“If there’s any possible way to not do it, legally, then yes, I would not want to put my name on any of those certificates or papers,” MacEwen told POLITICO. “That’s their life, they can do it, but I don’t feel I should be forced into something that’s against my morals and my God.”
MacEwen said she’s written her state senator – Republican Patty Ritchie, who voted against legalizing gay weddings – to determine her legal options.
Here’s a solid legal option. Quit. Or run for emperor and win, and then you can impose your beliefs on the entire population. Reminds me of all the asshole pharmacy workers who don’t want to distribute presciptions that “offend” them.
Han's Solo
If she doesn’t want to do her job I’m sure someone will.
geg6
On a related note, I will pimp this Rude Pundit post once again:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/note-to-rep.html
Perhaps we should send it on to Ms. MacEwen as a commentary on what we actually think about her stupid god. Maybe it will give her something to actually have the vapors about.
lamh34
Ughhh!! People like this are just being mean & petty WATB. So what u don’t like it….it’s ur freaking’ job to obey the law. Hell do liked racist in the South do nowadays do…sign the damn papers, but look down ur nose at them at the same time.
JonF
I don’t think that this would survive a court challenge. If she refused, I’m fairly sure that a gay couple could get an order forcing her to do sign it.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Work almost always results in having to accommodate someone you don’t agree with, or work policies that you don’t agree with. So why is it that we have so many fucking ‘moral crusaders’ that are allowed free passes when they flip the table over, pout, and refuse to move when it comes to demanding their bigotry be enshrined legally?
Phyllis
As a public employee, I’m morally opposed to…, well, f*ck-all, one, because I’m too old and tired to give a damn and two, because what other people do is none of my business.
Nobody’s forcing you to remain town clerk, you twatwaffle. Take early retirement. Surely your church can find someplace to send you where you can godbother others to your heart’s content.
IrishGirl
Well a clerk of court has to follow the friggin law and so they should fire her ass and get someone who will follow the law.
MattR
For the record, I am quite happy to officiate ceremonies anywhere in New York state except NYC (they wont recognize me) and Long Island (F that island. I won’t go there)
Jim C.
I don’t think you people understand!
This person is SO IRREPLACEABLE that this is a HUGE deal. :)
Who else will be able to sign their name to the forms? We can’t afford to lose this highly rare skill set.
Gravenstone
I hope this moron realizes she just drew a bright, red Fuck With Me sign on her little corner of Mayberry. I half expect to see same sex pairs lined out her office door, two by two, in a lovely little declaration of, “just do your damned job, witch!”
Poopyman
Did she take an oath of office? If so, it should be fairly easy to remove her for violating her oath. Come to think of it, if she didn’t take an oath she could still be removed for not performing her public duties.
IANAL, but I’ll gladly play one on the internets and say that her legal options are, uhhh, “limited”.
BeccaM
I’m sure the racists and anti-miscegenationists will be glad to hear there could be legal options so they don’t have to sign the marriage certificates of non-whites and mixed-race couples either.
I’m with everyone else here: If she doesn’t want to do the job, then quit or be fired.
Svensker
At least a pharmacist is a private person working for a private company, so his or her decision not to do something can at least be defended on libertarian grounds…plus you can, theoretically anyway, find another pharmacy.
The town clerk works for the government. She either does her lawful job or she quits. She doesn’t get to legislate from her desk.
Activist town clerks!
Svensker
Oh crap, moderation.
Poopyman
On the flip side of the coin, is she the only one on record to declare this? I think that’s a pretty good ratio, actually.
demkat620
Last I recalled, there are alot of people out of work. Bet we can find somebody willing to follow the law to replace her.
But then again, IOIYAR, right?
eric
I suggest Will and Grace reruns until she sees the light
rob!
Hey, there’s one more job Obama has created!
urizon
Town clerks are elected in NY State. Not sure what the law says regarding removal from office, however.
Han's Solo
You know I totally understand this poor clerk’s dilemma.
You see, I used to be a pilot, but my bosses kept insisting I take the plane up in the air, and I didn’t like that. So I wrote my Congressman. No word back yet.
So I quit and got a job as a waiter at Outback Steakhouse. But my bosses kept insisting I handle red, bloody meat, and I didn’t like that. So I wrote my Congressman. No word back yet.
So I quit and got a job as a cop, but my bosses insisted I carry a gun, and guns scare me. So I wrote my Congressman. No word back yet.
So I quit and got a job as a neurosurgeon. My bosses insisted I cut into people’s brains, gross! So I wrote my Congressman. No word back yet.
The upside of all this? I no longer receive any mail of any sort from my Congressman!
numbskull
Sounds like she thinks she’s OWED this job, that the position of Town Clerk was created for her AMUSEMENT and PROFIT.
The sense of entitlement is staggering.
Steaming Pile
I hope this moron realizes she just drew a bright, red Fuck With Me sign on her little corner of Mayberry.
In other news, yes, there are places like that in New York State where cows outnumber people and little churches on the side of the road dot the landscape with a frequency that rivals that of the Deep South.
Steaming Pile
They’re pretty much in as long as someone doesn’t manage to get a higher row on the ballot. Do you know who your town clerk is? Any opinion one way or another about his/her job performance?
I hate that. At least if the town clerk were appointed by the town supervisor (an elected official you are far more likely to recognize by name), you can bet that person knows how well the town clerk is doing his or her job.
bemused
The clerk is 75 and doesn’t think there will be many gay couples applying for a marriage license in Volney, pop 6,000, because she doesn’t think there are any gay couples in her town. There might be but she doesn’t know of any.
Ha. A senior citizen who is morally opposed to same-sex marriage is probably the last one who would know who is gay in her town or not, no matter how small Volney is.
Tonal Crow
As a taxpayer, I’m morally opposed to the War on Drugs, the prison-industrial complex, indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping, our governments’ many and egregious violations of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 14th Amendments, improperly-supervised police and federal agents, the war in Iraq, the continuation of the war in Afghanistan, and the Republican Party.
Therefore I get to withhold the portion of my taxes that funds those entities and activities, because anything else would violate my freedom of religion, right?
Bubblegum Tate
Why do these assholes think that if they thump the Bible enough, they’ll be exempt from having to do…you know..their fucking jobs?
Garbo
Why are there shows on TV I don’t like?
Why can people I don’t know and will never meet do things I don’t approve of?
Why am I not in control of the entire country’s school curriculums?
Why can’t I believe in the science that makes my Prozac and microwave but not any of the rest of it?
Why, why, why???
These people are so persecuted. I feel for them. Everything in my world is peachy perfect and exactly as I like it.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hopefully she’ll take the time to read up on the nature of a secular nation after she’s fired.
SteveM
Fine, Ms. MacEwen — I’m sure your little town derives a certain amount of revenue from tourism. It just lost a possibly not trivial amount of that revenue. Happy?
El Tiburon
I hate people like Barbara MacEwen. I’m sure she is a nice old bird who can make a mean pitcher of ice tea and whatnot.
But f her in the face.
FlipYrWhig
Maybe the next straight couple that wants a marriage license should walk in there and ask for a different town clerk, in order that their precious marriage license not be sullied with Harpy Cooties. It’s a matter of conscience! They shouldn’t be forced to have her bigotry smeared all over their paperwork. That’s just gross.
urizon
@Steaming Pile
Even worse is the fact that highway supers are elected, so you have two executives in a given town. It’s asinine.
But I’d go one further and abolish the towns, altogether. County government is sufficient, and more populated places could incorporate as a village if they so desire.
NY State, as it is currently configured, is constitutionally dysfunctional, imo.
Peter J
If I was gay, living in Volney, and about to get married, I wouldn’t want her name anywhere on any document.
gex
No one is truly free if we aren’t free to deny others their freedom. You might think that leads to a conundrum. But religious and conservative folks know that “real” Americans know it’s supposed to always go down their way.
Nutella
@ Bubblegum Tate
The pharmacists who are licensed by the states to do a specific job have gotten special laws and regs that permit them to fail to do their jobs when they are asked to dispense drugs they don’t approve of, so why shouldn’t this bigot get away with failing to do her job and follow the law, too?
Geeno
I don’t think any NYer would disagree with you, urizon. Sadly, the ballot issue for a constitutional convention keeps failing, because people are afraid the conventioneers will concoct something even worse.
Suffern ACE
This is where it will be interesting to actually read the law to see those “religious exemptions” that were holding up negotiations. I had originally thought that this was one of them, such that marriage would pass, but an official could claim relgious exemption to actually have to implement it. Not a minister at a church – but any public official. The conscientious objectors who cannot be sued. I don’t think it made it in, but I haven’t read the details either.
MeDrewNotYou
@ gex: Fundamentalists are really good at making conundrums and inconsistencies go away. See prosperity gospel as compared to that hippy bullshit about camels and needles.
jrg
I wonder what would happen if I refused to write a review for a gay co-worker. Oh, that’s right, I’d be fucking fired.
Amazing how these fundie nitwits crow incessantly about the “free market”, when behaving like this in industry would get you canned in a New York minute.
Ed Drone
I have a friend who recently ran for such an office just so she could sign such licenses! She says she upset a few folks when she answered questions about gay marriage during the campaign.
More power to her — and she’s straight, so there’s no “agenda” involved.
Ed
JoshA
She could go work for the insurance companies. They’d love someone whose life’s desire is to tell people to go screw themselves.
Tulip
This.
The core of all those ‘real’ murkins thinking.
assclowns and fucktwits every.single.one.of.them.
scav
mmm. Anybody want to come up with a crowd-generated tourism campaign for Volney?
Should liven things up no end. Because as tiny a mind and heart as Barbara MacEwen is shambling about with, the only recourse is probably to convince her neighbors they don’t want her as the local poster child.
WereBear
Lord love a duck, Volney’s north of Syracuse. But a little town and an old clerk; not exactly the most flexible place in the world.
If I were part of a gay couple in Voleny, hell, I wouldn’t be in Voleny.
eemom
y’all, this is just the beginning. Teh stoopid is gonna be raining cats and dogs day and night for quite some time as all kinds of rank and file morons like this woman are dragged kicking and screaming out of the Middle Ages.
Ed Marshall
With Blago getting sentenced today, this reminded me of one of the few things that he was good for. He wrote an executive rule that he didn’t give a tin shit what you morally object to, you will fill prescriptions at your pharmacy or you will lose your fucking license.
Ed Marshall
I didn’t say any of the magic words or change my identity, why did I go to moderation?
chris
“Goddammit, Hot Lips, resign your goddam commission!”
rob!
“This isn’t a major American political party; it’s an insane asylum!”
Gustopher
She’s 75, she and her bigoted hateful views will die soon enough.
But hopefully not before she is legally forced to either quit or sign some
same sex marriagebig old gay sodomy licenses.OzoneR
Except, at least, you can go to another pharmacy. You can’t go to another town.
Well, I guess you can, but why should you? The hire ups passed a law, it’s your job as an elected official to follow it.
Mike M
Is the town clerk of Volney supposed to be a true representative of the people of New York? How did this get to be a news item in the first place? You can always get someone somewhere to say something outrageous, but how does that make it newsworthy? Politico writers have to generate something to get the clicks, I suppose, and generate ad dollars, but that doesn’t mean what they write has any significance.
catclub
“Or run for emperor ”
It is the Empire State, after all.
AAA Bonds
Well, no guarantee she’s a troll, is there? Her bigotry may be humble and sincere.
Comrade Mary
Ed Marshall, the correct spelling of farmacy will dump you into moderation.
myiq2xu
The title of the post say it all.
arguingwithsignposts
to tie this in with a wingnut meme: Maybe she has an auto-pen.
Triassic Sands
And if she’s looking for a second option how about — just piss off you bigot.
I’ve grown to really despise these people.
artem1s
FTW
LT
Don’t let her quit: Fire her fucking ass. Asshole fuck.
Kyle
My Flying Spaghetti Monster religion has me morally opposed to selfish bigoted assholes, so I’m unilaterally disabling the network accounts of all right-wing Repukes at my workplace. They might use their network access to stream Faux News, Flush Limbaugh or other material I find offensive to my religion.
Under Teabagger Repuke rules, my workplace is an arena for me to exercise moralistic judgements on others, and you must respect my religion.
Yutsano
Sorry, that rule only applies if you’re a member of an approved Christian denomination. Otherwise you’re nothing but a godless heathen who should be stoned in the streets as soon as Empress Bachmann makes all Biblical laws legal.
BruceFromOhio
There is no substitute for a current, well-worded position description. When you CHOOSE not do the task(s) required by the job? You’re FIRED.
Bulworth
I’m sure this clerk’s township or county or whatever could vote to secede from NY. That could be the next teabagger cause.
Also, too: I wonder where the teabagger party is on gay marriage in NY…
Bulworth
Damn. Gotta clean my computer screen again…
dj spellchecka
perhaps she’d be happier in a job where she can apply sharia law