A town clerk in New York will quit her job July 21 rather than grant marriage licenses to same-gender couples.
After New York voted to grant same-sex couples the right to marry, the clerk of Baker, N.Y., Laura Fotusky said "I had to choose between my job and my god," according to a politico.com article.
Fotusky, the two-time elected clerk of the Town of Baker, posted her letter of resignation on the New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom's website.
"There was no protection provided in (New York's) legislation for town clerks who are unable to sign these marriage licenses due to personal religious convictions, even though our U.S. Constitution supports freedom of religion," Fotusky wrote in her letter. "I believe that there is a higher law than the law of the land. It is the law of God in the Bible. In Acts 5:29, it states, 'We ought to obey God rather than men.'"
The 56-year-old Fotusky also wrote, "The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures. Since I love and follow Him, I cannot put my signature on something that is against God."
New York Governor Cuomo reacted to Fotusky's resignation. "The law is the law. When you enforce the laws of the state, you don't get to pick and choose which laws," he said according to an article on the New York Daily News' website.
Guomo's reaction alludes to another New York town clerk, Barbara MacEwen, who refused to sign gay-marriage licenses back in June.
"That's their life, they can do it," said MacEwen about same-sex marriage, according to Politco, "but I don't feel I should be forced into something that's against my morals and my God."
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