NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A bill that passed the state House during the 2023 regular General Assembly, but was deferred in the Senate for around a year, is now heading to Governor Bill Lee's desk to be signed into law.
HB 0878 was introduced by Rep. Monty Fritts (R - Kingston) in January 2023. The House passed an amended version of the bill, which adds a new subsection to Tennessee law on marriages. The proposed subsection is available below.
(m) A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage.
County clerks and their staff would be included in that subsection.
The Tennessee Senate adopted the House version of the bill and passed it mostly along party lines. While defending the bill, Sen. Mark Pody (R - Lebanon) said on the Senate floor that the bill did not affect whether clerks could issue marriage licenses.
"It just says that a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage. This has nothing to do with getting a license, this has nothing to do with the clerks required to give a license," he said.
The original version of the proposal specifically said people would not be required to solemnize a marriage if they had objections to it based on their "conscience or religious beliefs."
When the House was discussing the bill in 2023, several lawmakers and advocates spoke against it, concerned that it would enable county leaders to refuse to solemnize same-sex marriages based on personal beliefs. In 2023, Fritts defended the bill by saying it was meant to document that people could not be "forced to solemnize a marriage."
In late December 2022, President Joe Biden signed gay marriage legislation into law at the federal level. That law was designed to safeguard gay marriages should the U.S. Supreme Court reverse the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex unions. It also protects interracial marriages.
The law did not require states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples but says states will need to recognize marriages from elsewhere in the country.