Tenn. State Sen. Mark Pody, (R-Lebanon) (L) pictured with two members of the extremist anti-LGBTQ+ group, Moms 4 Liberty. (Photo Credit: Office of Sen. Mark Pody/Facebook)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. | A measure that would allow officiants to decline to perform weddings, passed the Tennessee Senate without debate along party lines on Monday evening and was sent to Republican Governor Bill Lee.
While it is not known if Lee will sign the legislation, he has signed numerous anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law including Senate Bill 1440, which redefines sex in Tennessee’s legal code in a manner that excludes transgender individuals from legal protections, measures that criminalizes gender-affirming care for transgender youth and a law that could be used to stop all drag shows on public property or in the presence of anyone under the age of 18.
Lee also signed Lee signed Senate Bill 2153, which “prohibits males from participating in public higher education sports that are designated for females.” The law also requires Tennessee colleges to determine a student-athlete’s gender using the student’s “original” birth certificate.
Senate Bill 596, which the House version was passed last legislative session in 2023, states: “A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”
The Tennessean reported that the bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody, (R-Lebanon) and Rep. Monty Fritts, (R-Kingston) wouldn’t just apply to wedding officiants and religious leaders — it also amends Tennessee Code Section 36-3-301, which applies to public government officials, including county clerks who handle marriage licenses. The legislation would allow those individuals, too, to refuse to “solemnize” a marriage based on their own religious convictions.
Pody told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this month that the goal of his bill is to provide clarity on whether officiants are required to perform marriages.
Journalist Chris Walker reported that Fritts has asserted that any opposition to the bill being anti-LGBTQ is misplaced because the bill doesn’t mention such marriages at all, dubiously claiming that the bill merely exists to clarify “the rights of the officiate or officiates of wedding ceremonies” to refuse to perform marriage ceremonies based on religious convictions, rights that already exist within the state and that aren’t being questioned or challenged.
- In 2016, he sought to “nullify” the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling.
- In 2017, he sponsored a bill calling for Tennessee to defy Obergefell entirely, and literally fled protesters at his press conference.
- In 2019, he filed the “Tennessee Natural Marriage Bill” that would void same-sex marriages, something he says God told him to do.
- In 2020, he filed a fourth attempt to make the bible the official book of Tennessee. In 2021, he filed a bill that would allow fathers to block abortions by their partners.
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