The Skeptic Next Door

From http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/sask_same_sex_marriage

Summary:

• Marriage commissioner refused to perform a gay marriage.
• Marriage commissioner is fined $2500 by the Saskatchewan human rights tribunal.
• Marriage commissioner sues Saskatchewan government for the right to decline the ceremony because his charter rights have been violated.

The more I think about this, I don’t think the marriage commissioner should have the right to refuse. If you are a marriage commissioner, you should as part of your job, perform any legal marriage.  This is a civil ceremony not a religious one.

Should such a person be able to refuse interracial marriages? How about a catholic commissioner not marrying someone who has been divorced?

I do not think this is a charter of rights violation.  Does performing a marriage ceremony with a same sex couple alter your beliefs?  Should a pharmacist be allowed to not fill birth control prescriptions if they do not believe in birth control?  What if there is only one pharmacist in town? If you do not like this find a new profession.

How should this be handled? If he had said, “I am willing to perform the ceremony but I personally do not feel that same sex marriages are proper.” Would not the couple go else where? Is this the same as a refusal?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 5:57 am and is filed under Skepticism, media, skeptic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.