Felicia Pitts Davis performed a ceremony for a heterosexual couple but bailed out on two women waiting to be married, sources say.
Summary
Syracuse City Court Judge Felicia Pitts Davis refused to officiate a same-sex wedding, citing religious beliefs.
Another judge, Mary Anne Doherty, performed the ceremony.
Pitts Davis’ actions, considered discriminatory under New York judicial ethics and the Marriage Equality Act, are under review by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct
Shadia Tadros, 39, a first-generation Arab-American, and Felicia Pitts Davis, 52, a Black woman with parents from the Deep South, say they are arriving with a mandate: The status quo is over.
In the year of marches to address systemic racism in the justice system, they stand with the peaceful protesters. They marched, too.
Tadros and Davis — who point out they are different people with different backgrounds — share some goals on how they want to change the justice system.
It's so telling that these religious nut jobs never use their "deeply held beliefs" to feed, house, comfort, protect, and uplift those they are charged with governing.
These religious nutjobs like to living and choose what parts of the Bible they'll follow when it's convenient. Apply their Christian principles to lending money.
The Paris commune had it right. All public officials should be removable at any time by public referendum. Nor should they ever make more than they people they serve.
Officiating a marriage is a "performance". A kind of art. It's not substantially different than giving a speech, acting on stage, or playing music. And forcing people to perform something they don't believe in, is wrong.
Would it be right to commission a Muslim painter to paint Mohammed, then sue them when they refuse on religious grounds? Would it be right to tell them they have to do it, because they chose to paint portraits for a living?
If it was simply signing another document on a stack with a dozen others, that would be different. There is no art or creativity there. But telling somone they have to give a performance they aren't comfortable with, is wrong. You don't force actors to do love scenes against their will. This is substantially the same.