The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage reverberated across metro Atlanta on Saturday.
Supporters continued to celebrate, get married and look ahead to future gay-rights battles. Opponents, meanwhile, continued to process a devastating loss, prepare challenges, and hope for what they see as a return to traditional values.
Atlantans on both sides of the issue spoke passionately about the historic decision.
“The most historic thing for us”
DeKalb County Probate Court opened Saturday to continue performing marriages. Judges conducted 17 same-sex marriage ceremonies.
“Seventeen long years,” Aubrey Taylor declared after he and his partner for those years, Timothy Jackson, were married by magistrate court Judge Mary McCall Cash.
For four hours Saturday morning, couples shuttled between the probate court offices in the basement, where marriage licenses were being issued, to a first-floor courtroom where judges were available to perform ceremonies.
“We did this for the convenience of the public,” said Probate Judge Jeryl Debra Rosh. Twenty-seven marriage licenses were issued, “the vast majority” to same-sex couples, she said.
Jessica Watkins and Heather Davis came from Marietta in large measure because Jessica is nine weeks pregnant. They said they needed to become legally married as soon as possible to avoid an elaborate and costly adoption process.
“What this means is all (Heather) has to do is sign the birth certificate as the second parent,” Watkins said. “That’s the most historic thing for us.”
“They are feeling torn”
The Rev. Bryant Wright of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in East Cobb prepared a Sunday sermon to address what he believed was a court ruling in opposition to church teaching.
In the pews, he said, people feel the conflict between Bible instruction and a popular culture that has largely embraced same-sex marriage.
“There’s no doubt they are feeling torn,” he said.
He said society is seeing "the death of cultural Christianity." For many years, especially in the South, it was popular for a person to publicly identify with the church. Consequently, there were many people who declared themselves as Christians, but who did not truly commit to God's word, Wright said.
That has changed. Nowadays, a person could face social alienation and even trouble at work for expressing church-centered beliefs critical of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
“I think we’ll see smaller numbers (in the pews) in the years ahead,” he said. “There is a much sharper contrast between a Christian and a non-believer.”
“Couples will be at risk”
Ryan Roemerman, interim executive director of the LGBT Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, said this is a time for celebration, but that tomorrow will be a time for work.
“In June, thousands of couples will have a chance to marry, but in July, 50 percent of those couples will be at risk of being fired from their jobs,” said Roemerman.
“Though we have this marriage ruling, it does not take away from the fact that in today’s society you can be fired for being gay,” he said.
In the South, that issue is even more critical. Roemerman said of the 8 million self-professed gay and lesbian people in the U.S., 2.7 million live in the South: the largest concentration in any region.
“But none of the Southern states have passed anti-discrimination laws,” he said.
“It is a sad day in America”
Tanya Ditty, state director of Concerned Women for America of Georgia, said the court’s decision marks a “sad day” for this country.
“The Biblical view of marriage was mocked by not only the highest court in our land but by the deafening applause from the highest leaders of our government,” she said.
She said the court took into its own hands matters of policy, which are left, by the authority of the Constitution, to the providence of the legislative branch.
“It is a sad day in America when five unelected justices think themselves so powerful they dare overturn the votes of millions of Americans, including over 75 percent of Georgians, who went to the voting booth to preserve marriage as it had been understood throughout history, the union between one man and one woman,” Ditty said.
She added, “We have much work to do to reestablish a pro-marriage, pro-family culture in our nation, but we embrace the challenges ahead, knowing that we stand on solid ground when we say that marriage, as intended by God, is the best model for strong, healthy, stable families that serve as the only secure foundation for our society’s future.”
