The gay couple who sued Hood County, Texas, Clerk Katie Lang after she refused to issue them a marriage license has settled their lawsuit, and ‘religious freedom’ isn’t cheap. Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton have settled their federal lawsuit against Hood County Clerk Katie Lang…. Yesterday, attorneys for the couple announced they have reached a settlement of that lawsuit. Ms. Lang - or most likely Hood County taxpayers - will pay almost $44,000, which is the cost of the attorneys Jim and Joe hired to handle the lawsuit. NBCDFW reports that the county’s special attorney, Grant Blaies of Fort Worth, didn’t return calls from reporters asking for details of the agreement, but we know, despite the fact Jim and Joe sued Ms. Lang and not Hood County, it was county attorneys who reached the agreement, not private counsel, even though the right-wing Liberty Institute had offered to defend Ms. Lang.
The idea that love doesn’t necessarily respect conventional definitions and traditional gender boundaries has been just a bit too much for some good, God-fearing Conservative White Christian patriots to handle. The idea that the Supreme Court decided that marriage equality should be the law of the land greatly offended those who believe their God allows them to hate and discriminate against those who don’t honor their prejudices and sensibilities God’s Law. Their belief that their God must by rights be our government is complete as it is irrational and unconstitutional.
Of course, people like Katie Lang can’t seem to be bothered with the truth that their God isn’t and shouldn’t be synonymous with our government. American governance is officially secular; they can claim from here ‘til Valentines Day that America is a Christian nation…but it just isn’t true. Since public servants like Lang are charged with serving the public- some of whom…GASP!! OMIGOD!!! WHAT ABOUT OUR POOR, IMPRESSIONABLE SNOWFLAKES?!?!?!???- aren’t Christian, their religious beliefs shouldn’t enter into the performance of their job. In this case, her intransigence and dereliction of duty is costing the taxpayers of Hood County a sizable chunk of change.
The way Ms. Lang treated Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton really had little to do with her Christianity, such as it is. It was far more about the mean-spirited taunting of a couple who simply wished to exercise their legal right to marry. The insensitive, disrespectful, and truly dickish manner in which she treated Cato and Stapleton was truly shameless. Her refusal to do her job because of her personal revulsion at the idea of same sex marriage had nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. It was as decidedly un-Christian as it was inhuman and disrespectful.
Together 27 years, Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton just want to get married. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage on June 26, the Grandbury, Texas couple thought they’d be able to, like everyone else in America. They were wrong.
First, Hood County, Texas county clerk Katie Lang refused to issue them a marriage license, citing her deeply held religious beliefs. On June 30 Lang criticized the Supreme Court “for ‘newly inventing’ a constitutional right to gay marriage,” Courthouse News reports. She then “cited a June 28 nonbinding opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton that urged county clerks and justices of the peace not to issue licenses or perform same-sex marriages if they have personal religious objections.”
She later relented, saying someone else in her office would issue the license, but told the couple she didn’t have the forms, and wouldn’t for another three weeks. When Jim and Joe told her they downloaded the forms online, printed them and then filled them out - in her office - she refused to accept them.
The couple have been showing up daily to try to obtain a marriage license.
The Supreme Court didn’t “newly invent” a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. They simply decided that marriage equality IS a constitutional right. Good, God-fearing Conservative White Christian patriots like Ms. Lang don’t have to like that ruling, but the Supreme Court really doesn’t give a damn WHAT they believe. Their ruling is now the law of the land, and Ms. Lang has two choices- she can obey the ruling and do her job…or she can quit and find a line of work that won’t require her to violate her “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
As it is, her irresponsibility, religious intolerance, and dereliction of duty is costing Hood County taxpayers in excess of 40 large.
Because Jesus.
