North Carolina Religious Exemption Bill On Marriage Now Law

Thursday's House vote was just over the three-fifths majority needed.

The law means some register of deeds workers who assemble licenses and magistrates to solemnize civil marriages can decide to stop performing all marriages if they hold a "sincerely held religious objection." 

Jeff Thigpen is the Register of Deeds in Guilford County, who says the law reduces some people to second-class citizens, and he's concerned it will make his office tough to manage. That's because anyone who takes the opt-out won't be able to issue licenses for at least six months.

“In Guilford County in 2014 we had 3,600 couples come in for marriage licenses. Thirty-three hundred were straight, 250 were same-sex couples. So if an employee says they're not going to do one of the 250 couples, they can't be available to do it for the other 3,300 straight couples,” he says.

Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara is executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. She expects the new law to be challenged in court and ultimately struck down as unconstitutional.

“We're on an irreversible path to same-sex couples being able to marry in all 50 states, and we see the passage of SB2 as being completely out-of-step with the direction our entire country is headed in, in terms of treating gay and lesbian families as fully equal under the law," she says.

The N.C. Values Coalition praised the passage of the bill, calling it "an important first step in protecting our fundamental American freedom of religion."

McCrory had said no one who takes a government oath should be allowed to avoid performing duties required by that oath.

Before North Carolina, only Utah had passed such a similar exemption earlier this year.