Freddie Oakley, Yolo County's clerk-recorder, will distribute "certificates of inequality" to same-sex couples on Valentine's Day to protest the state's ban on gay marriage.
She said she designed the certificates herself as a way to "ease her soul" over having to deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians.
Oakley's "Certificate of Inequality" claims that California wrongly deprives gays and lesbians of the right to marry.
"I issue this Certificate of Inequality to you because your choice of marriage partner displeases some people whose displeasure is, apparently, more important than principles of equality."
Contrast that with this from the Canadian Press via 365gay.com:
The rights of a same-sex couple to marry faced off Wednesday against the rights of a Saskatchewan marriage commissioner who said he couldn't perform the service because of religious beliefs. But Nichols, a 70-year-old devout Baptist, testified that performing same-sex marriages goes directly against all he knows. "My religious upbringing, my religious beliefs don't allow me to do same-sex marriage," he said.It's like looking at opposite land. The US has a heterosexual woman who wants to marry gay and lesbian couples but can't, Canada has a heterosexual man who doesn't want to marry gay and lesbian couples but can't not.
The difference is that the American woman still does her job but finds a creative way to protest. The Canadian man just doesn't do his job. This is a hurdle that we will have to overcome: our straight allies are honest people who generally play by the rules, the other side doesn't.
Nichols could just quit, which he should if he doesn't want to do his job. While I would be weirded out to get one of Oakley's Certificates of Inequality, it'd be good to know that at least one person there is on our side.
