State-owned facility says 'no' to same-sex ceremony (OneNewsNow.com)

State-owned facility says 'no' to same-sex ceremony (OneNewsNow.com)

onenewsnow.com

State-owned facility says 'no' to same-sex ceremony
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 7/16/2012 4:25:00 AM

A legal expert is urging Mississippi to stand strong against a lesbian couple's demand to use state facilities for a commitment ceremony.

The Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum has declined to permit 20-year-old Ceara Sturgis and her partner to use the facility, just as the state-owned museum refused to allow a similar ceremony for two men earlier this year. Officials interpret commitment ceremonies to represent a union, and it cites a 2009 opinion from Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, saying that stance is permissible because same-sex "marriage" is not legal in The Magnolia State.
Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel says the looming threat against the state is outrageous.
"Now they're being threatened by the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC], which is an organization that supports radical homosexual agenda items," he reports. "This particular situation, I think, is one where in Mississippi, same-sex marriage is not recognized. And so it would be impermissible, I think, completely wrong to use government facilities to recognize something that is absolutely banned in the state of Mississippi."
But Staver emphasizes that "the agenda of the sexual anarchist movement" is "to put this issue up -- homosexuality, lesbianism and whatever the nomenclature of the alphabet may be from day to day -- to simply push this into your face and to shove it down the throats of the American people. I believe that this threat of homosexuality and same-sex unions is the biggest threat to our family, to our morality and to our freedom that we face here in America," the attorney concludes.
As for Mississippi, he believes the state stands on solid ground as it faces the threat of a lawsuit if it does not approve the ceremony by July 25.

The SPLC says it is not challenging the state's ban on same-sex unions, but it does believe commitment ceremonies should be allowed at the museum.

---

If you believe OneNewsNow.com is an important source for Christian news,
please consider a small tax-deductible gift for this service.