Officials in Dent County, Mo., are very upset. Not just upset — they feel “sadness, shame and outright revulsion,” in the words of the county’s Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles (R).
“I had this feeling like when someone near and dear has passed away,” the commissioner told Buzzfeed. “Not the same, but similar.”
The source of his misery? Last month’s Supreme Court ruling declaring that marriage for all couples, gay or straight, is a fundamental right.
So, while same-sex marriage advocates celebrated with marriage applications and rainbow heart emojis, Skiles drew up a proposal for his county commission. Calling the Supreme Court decision a “travesty,” he urged his fellow commissioners to vote in favor of a year of mourning over the decision.
On Monday, the three-person commission voted unanimously in favor of the move, according to local newspaper the Salem News.
The county will observe the year by lowering the flags at the county courthouse and judicial building to below half staff on the 26th day of every month from July 2015 to June 2016 (the Supreme Court ruling was issued on the 26th of June this year).
“All who see these flags at this lowered position be reminded of this despicable Supreme Court travesty,” Skiles wrote in his letter, according to the Salem News.
The decision has already angered at least one of Dent County’s roughly 16,000 residents. Alex Sellers, 26, quickly created a Change.org petition asking that the commission rescind their vote. By early Tuesday morning it had garnered nearly 900 signatures.
Sellers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that when he first read about the decision, he thought he must be looking at a story on a satire site. But he wasn’t — he was reading his local newspaper.
“Even if this doesn’t change their minds, I wanted it out there that we’re not all a bunch of closed-minded individuals mourning the Supreme Court decision,” Sellers said of his petition. “This is not just a backward place. There’s another side of this.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ar-of-mourning-over-same-sex-marriage-ruling/
“I had this feeling like when someone near and dear has passed away,” the commissioner told Buzzfeed. “Not the same, but similar.”
The source of his misery? Last month’s Supreme Court ruling declaring that marriage for all couples, gay or straight, is a fundamental right.
So, while same-sex marriage advocates celebrated with marriage applications and rainbow heart emojis, Skiles drew up a proposal for his county commission. Calling the Supreme Court decision a “travesty,” he urged his fellow commissioners to vote in favor of a year of mourning over the decision.
On Monday, the three-person commission voted unanimously in favor of the move, according to local newspaper the Salem News.
The county will observe the year by lowering the flags at the county courthouse and judicial building to below half staff on the 26th day of every month from July 2015 to June 2016 (the Supreme Court ruling was issued on the 26th of June this year).
“All who see these flags at this lowered position be reminded of this despicable Supreme Court travesty,” Skiles wrote in his letter, according to the Salem News.
The decision has already angered at least one of Dent County’s roughly 16,000 residents. Alex Sellers, 26, quickly created a Change.org petition asking that the commission rescind their vote. By early Tuesday morning it had garnered nearly 900 signatures.
Sellers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that when he first read about the decision, he thought he must be looking at a story on a satire site. But he wasn’t — he was reading his local newspaper.
“Even if this doesn’t change their minds, I wanted it out there that we’re not all a bunch of closed-minded individuals mourning the Supreme Court decision,” Sellers said of his petition. “This is not just a backward place. There’s another side of this.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ar-of-mourning-over-same-sex-marriage-ruling/
