South Carolina Republicans Think Gay Marriages Are Part of a Shadowy Religious Plot

Six upstate Republican members of the South Carolina State House have sponsored a bill that declares same-sex unions as “parody marriages” that are all part of some secret shadowy religion that the Supreme Court is trying to force down states’s throats. The South Carolina gay marriage parody bill is sadly not a parody, but it only exists to help the politicians who created it get re-elected, and there’s almost no chance it will ever become law.

To be frank, the bill — called the “Marriage and Constitution Restoration Act” — is stupidly written. Its text states that “all forms of parody marriage and all self-asserted sex-based identity narratives and sexual orientations … are part of the religion of Secular Humanism.”

Did you catch that? The bill’s authors are saying same-sex marriage and the very concept of gender identity and sexual orientation are part of a religion called Secular Humanism. That’s probably news to countless LGBTQ atheists and those who identify as members of other faiths.

The bill’s authors basically argue that the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court legalization of marriage equality nationwide is an example of the government trying to force a religion onto U.S. states. And since the U.S. Constitution says the government can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” same-sex marriages don’t have to be recognized.

 

The South Carolina gay marriage parody bill is a conspiracy theory masquerading as legislation. It goes on to define “Marriage” as “a union of one man and one woman,” and says South Carolina will no longer recognize same-sex marriages or “any policy treating sexual orientation as a suspect class” because both are “nonsecular” or religious.

It should come as no surprise that all six of the bill’s conservative sponsors are up for re-election this year. The bill is nothing more than a ploy to rile their voter base.

Although Republicans control the South Carolina House, the bill contradicts the 2015 Supreme Court ruling which invalidated any state laws that “exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage.” If this bill ever became law, it’d soon result in costly and unnecessary lawsuits only to be shut down by any competent court.