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Two men were forced to travel to another jurisdiction after a clerk refused to grant them a marriage license because of her religious objections.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, among others, blasted the decision by a Montgomery County town clerk to reject a marriage license for a same-sex couple.
Dylan Toften (pictured, left) and his partner were recently forced to travel to a neighboring jurisdiction to get their license after Montgomery clerk Laurel "Sherrie" Ericksen refused to grant them a license -- a deputy clerk in Montgomery will grant licenses to same-sex couples, but that employee was not in the office when Toften and his partner came in. Montgomery town attorney Robert Subik told the Daily Gazette that same-sex couples must make appointments because they have a clerk, Ericksen, who refuses to grant them licenses; in other words, the onus is on same-sex couples to work around the clerk's bigotry.
"[Ericksen] has a religious objection and has referred the matter to her deputy clerk, who has no such objection and will issue the license when they make an appointment," Subik told the Gazette.
New York's 2011 marriage equality law doesn't allow clerks to reject same-sex couples.
Cuomo, a Democrat running against out primary challenger Cynthia Nixon for a third term, came to the defense of Toften and his partner, even offering to perform their wedding ceremony.
\u201cThe denial of a marriage license to a same sex couple yesterday in Montgomery County is an unconscionable act of discrimination that goes against our values as New Yorkers. I am directing an investigation into this incident to ensure that it never happens again.\u201d— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo) 1533134039
\u201cThis is an expansion of the Trumpian philosophy: they are against marriage equality and they are substituting their philosophy for the law\n\nI don\u2019t care if the clerk is opposed to marriage equality that\u2019s her right but she can\u2019t impose her will onto others in violation of the law\u201d— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo) 1533137424
