California Clerk to Refuse All Marriages

I agree with Lou of North Hollywood. If Ms. Barnett is an elected official, she should step down and allow a competent official of Kern County take her place. If she is a county employee, she should be fired for refusing to perform the duties she was hired to do. This is what so called "christians", for which she will be a poster child, are all about. Love thy neighbor, unless they are LGBT. Indeed!

The clerk of Butte County has also announced that her office will no longer conduct any marriages. She did say that this was planned long before the original court decision. She also said that she would appoint as a Deputy Clerk for Civil Marriages (or something like that: I got this from a TV interview) anyone who requested to be appointed. I personally do not think her action had anything to do with same-sex marriages becoming legal.

In a weird way, I've chosen a path similar to Ms.Barnett but for opposite reasons: as a pastor of a church, I've stopped officiating at all weddings until such time as ALL God's children can be married in the church without discrimination.

I believe the only way she gets away with this is because there are other homophobes and bigots, such as she, who have the authority to back her up and do so. Hold back all their paychecks until they comply. Oh, I wish it were so easy!

Personally, I think this is great. I'll take her at her word that she assumes that the number of weddings she's asked to perform will SPIKE as soon as same-sex marriage is legalized. Makes a certain amount of sense, given that you don't get married every year and there are likely thousands of gay/lesbian couples in the county who've been together for 5, 10, 15, 20, 40, even 60 years or more who will want to tie the knot before the November ballot initiative. So ... what happens? The straight people of Kern County get to feel a little bit of what it feels like to have marriage denied to them as well. If the LGBT community there spins this correctly, we might actually be able to win over some hearts and minds. Homophobes won't be swayed, but some well-meaning straight folks who just "never thought about it before" might be enlightened as a result of this.

If this woman is an elected offcial, then the voters will have to replace her. Otherwise, a legal suit will have to be filed forcing her to perform her job. The article does not explain if she is one of others who refuses to do this or if she is the one who performs weddings. If so, then she needs to be replaced because she cannot arbitrarily decide which parts of her job she will perform or not.

Someone needs to fire the bitch.

The sad thing is that this woman will become the poster child for the religious right. I'm sure somewhere she will be thought of as a "hero" for family values. And if she's fired, she'll be a "martyr".

Ms. Barnett is being very nieve if she believes she can stop people in love from getting married. It is time for all the close minded people of the world to either step aside and let the rest of us have the civil rights we are entitled to as human beings or get with the program and celebrate the greatness of both our sameness and diversity that makes man and woman kind so wonderful. Shame on you Ms. Barnett....God is watching you.. Denise Odom

I guess we the taxpayers that pay her wages have no say as to wheather she can do this. I say that she should be fired without any serverence or unemployment benefits. Since she is being insubordinate the county has just cause to get rid of her.