Your Tolerance is Insufficient; You Must Submit

“Who is trying to force their beliefs on whom?”

Rose Marie Belforti is a town clerk in Ledyard, New York who refused to sign a marriage license in August for two women after the state enacted the Marriage Equality Act in July. The two women, Katie Carmichael and Deirdre DiBiaggio, don’t even live in New York; they own seasonal property in a nearby town and actually live in Florida. One is an attorney and the other is a filmmaker.

Rose Marie, a mother of four and a grandmother, decided she could not in good conscience sign a same-sex marriage license, so she instead arranged for someone else to do it. The two women chose to come to Ledyard, this small farming town where they don’t even live and where Rose Marie has been the elected clerk for the past ten years, and pressed her decision. Rose Marie did not back down. True to her word, she offered to arrange an appointment for someone else to provide a legitimate signature. There are only around seven licenses a year to even sign at all, and she has since turned over the responsibility of signing (all those!) marriage licenses to another clerk.

So in a rational world, everyone should be happy, right? If I asked someone to do something for me and they told me that it violated their conscience, I’d respect that. If that person offered to find me another person to do what I wanted, I’d appreciate that. I’d even say, “Thank you.” That’s how I raise my own children. This is how reasonable people behave.

Not so in this case. The two women are threatening to sue the town of Ledyard, and the situation has become national news. Rose Marie, whom I completely support, said that she has been “battered over this in the media” and she can’t answer her phone anymore. She could lose her job because the law changed overnight with no consideration for conscience rights. And rather than just “getting married” now as they so wanted to do, the two women have declared they won’t stop until they get her to sign the license. Yeah, that sounds like true love to me.

Who is trying to force their beliefs on whom?

I don't really care one way or another about gay marriage, but I do care about freedom.  This woman accommodated them as much as she could.  There was no reason they could not proceed with their marriage.  There is no need for them to try to make her life hell.