Hood County Clerk Katie Lang has reversed her previous decision to not allow anyone in her office issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, although she is claiming that we all just simply misconstrued what she said earlier about not allowing anyone in her office to issue those licenses.
I am pretty sure I did not “misconstrue” what the woman in Lang’s office told me earlier today when she said NO ONE in that office would issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. I called and asked specifically.
This is the statement now posted on Lang’s Hood County Clerk website:
“The religious doctrines to which I adhere compel me to personally refrain from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Nonetheless, in addition to the county clerk offices in the several surrounding counties, as soon as the appropriate forms have been printed and supplied to my office, the County Clerk’s Office of Hood County will have staff available and ready to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
“Because some have misreported and misconstrued my prior statements, I want to make clear that the County Clerk’s Office of Hood County will comply with the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
“I am grateful that the First Amendment continues to protect the sincerely held religious beliefs of public servants like me. That has not changed since last Friday. As Justice Kennedy stated, ‘it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.’”
