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Preempting the Cockblock of Gay Marriage
Now that California has ruled that gay and lesbian couples should have the freedom to marry, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is making sure that the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office does not allow employees to opt out of officiating gay marriages if they feel uncomfortable.
On Friday, Acting Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan told the LA Times "that managers within his department urged him to consider allowing employees uncomfortable with same-sex marriages to opt out of officiating them." Although no employee expressed concern, he told the newspaper that he expected that employees uncomfortable with the situation would not be forced to.
After hearing this, Delgadillo fired off a letter to the County Board of Supervisors: "Mr. Logan has no legal standing to grant county employees the authority or ability to choose which marriages they wish to officiate at based upon personal views regarding an applicant's sexual orientation... I urge you to immediately order Mr. Logan to [...] require every county employee generally tasked with officiating at marriage proceedings to do so, regardless of any personal beliefs or biases."
However, in an e-mail sent do a constituent, Logan, who will present a plan on implementing the ruling Tuesday, said that "discrimination of or substandard service of any kind is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
Photo at this past weekend's Long Beach Pride Parade by rink_rat via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
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