Holy Homophobes!

Suppose a bunch of religious extremist lawmaker Neanderthals decided to pass laws permitting state licensed agencies, organizations and businesses to refuse services to mixed race couples, or mandating that a separate category of marriage license be issued to them.

If you thought that kind of treatment is unconstitutional you would be one-hundred-percent correct. The government can’t get away with making laws which deny equal protection of the laws to mixed race couples.

Never-mind all that, declare the Holy Homophobes. Yes, the Holy Homophobes are back in Georgia and Kentucky! And when it comes to the matter of gay couples their religious beliefs inform them that they have a perfect right to deny gays their Fourteenth Amendment fundamental rights to equal protection of the law.

Georgia's governor indicated that a bill is in the works allowing faith-based organizations which are licensed by and receive financial grants and other generous benefits from the state to refuse service to gay couples without repercussion.

The legislation is intended to prevent religious adoption agencies, schools and other organizations from losing licenses, state grants, or other government benefits on account of exercising their religious beliefs about same-sex marriage. The measure as approved by the Senate allows individuals and faith-based organizations to decline service to couples based on religious beliefs about marriage.

Of course, if faith-based organizations and individuals want to continue their discrimination practices against gays, there is a perfect solution – stop taking state money.

Meanwhile, Kentucky's state Senate approved a bill that creates different marriage license forms for gay and straight couples, because, as one homophobe senator explained: any form that does not include the words "bride" and "groom" is disrespectful to traditional families.

The original purpose of the legislation was to remove the names of county clerks from marriage licenses, a response to the controversy surrounding Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But the Republican-controlled Senate amended the bill as a way to show their support for traditional marriage. "Quite frankly… That has nothing to do with bigotry, nothing to do with discrimination,” deadpanned Republican state Sen. John Schickel.

The American Civil Liberties Union observed that the Senate was "setting a dangerous slippery slope precedent by catering to one specific religious belief and privileging that over others… Separate forms for gay and lesbian Kentuckians constitute unequal treatment under the law… Pure and simple, this bill is motivated by the desire to accommodate discrimination against same-sex couples."

Democratic Sen. Gerald Neal of Louisville said creating two marriage licenses is taking the state "down a path that has already been paved in this commonwealth that has a tendency to reinforce bigotry… Separate has never been equal," he said.

One must understand what we’re dealing with here – a bunch of religious bigots who’ve yet to learn their lessons about the United States Constitution Fourteenth Amendment and the guarantee of equal protection of the law.

Holy Homophobes!