Anti-LGBT activist Randy Thomasson has a message for governors across America: deploy the National Guard to stop same-sex marriages.
Thomasson, who leads the right-wing group Save California, detailed his proposal last week in a memo [PDF] to “pro-family leaders concerned about marriage”:
Each governor pledges themselves to “support and defend” the plain words of their state constitution, including, in morally conservative states, the definition of marriage as only for a man and a woman. Governors raise their right hand and publicly promise to “faithfully execute” (or carry out) these written laws, as commanded by their state constitutions.
Each governor also has an administration that serves his/her pleasure that is in charge of the state’s marriage forms (licenses and applications) that county clerks use.
And each governor is authorized to call out his/her state's militia or National Guard to enforce written laws and maintain public order against foreign and domestic enemies.
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Given these facts, it is state governors that are unfortunately allowing homosexual “marriages.” And given their constitutional and statutory powers, it is not good enough for governors to merely protest by appealing to a higher court the unconstitutional opinions of bad judges.
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In view of the current crisis on marriage, a constitutional governor can and should do the following:
• Announce he took an oath to obey the constitution, not to obey a judge’s unconstitutional opinion.
• Announce that no homosexual “marriage” licenses will be issues, and no county clerk is permitted to issue marriage licenses to anyone other than a qualified man and woman.
• Utilize the support of the state attorney general (if that constitutional officer is willing to stand alongside) or use the state’s National Guard to enforce the law at county clerk’s offices. (emphasis added)
Thomasson told WorldNetDaily yesterday that Republican governors aren’t doing enough to stop clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples following court decisions striking down marriage bans, and called for governors like Phil Bryant of Mississippi to use the National Guard to prevent same-sex marriages from taking place in their states.
“The casualties will be the children,” Thomasson said. “These Republican governors, by their own actions, are telling impressionable boys and girls ‘you can aspire to have a same-sex marriage for yourselves.’”
Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality similarly told WND that “if someone stood up to the homosexual lobby and the courts, they would achieve hero status.”
Some state governors, such as Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, have indicated they will file further appeals to block the same-sex marriage rulings of federal judges. But Thomasson says this is a weak response.
“They’re doing an appeal in Mississippi, but their attorney general there has said that these same-sex marriages will begin happening if their appeal to higher courts is not successful,” Thomasson said. “The governor is supposed to be a strong Christian man, so what is he going to do? Is he really going to protect marriage? As governor, he’s the head of the Mississippi National Guard. He can refuse to alter marriage certificates. He can threaten to sue county clerks for violating the state Constitution on man-woman marriage.”
Progressives have not hesitated to play power politics when it comes to getting their agendas through, he said.
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“Liberals will use their executive powers to do what they believe in,” Thomasson said. “Will pro-family governors use their powers to do what they believe in, not only what they believe in but what they have sworn to uphold and defend? Do we have to pull out the oath of office and read it to them? Do we have to pull out Black’s Law Dictionary and read them the definitions of the words they promised, such as ‘defend’ the Constitution and ‘faithfully execute’ the state laws?”
LaBarbera believes it would be politically popular for a governor to push the issue and defy the federal courts as having no authority over states’ rights to regulate marriage.
“Standing up to these courts would, I think, be good politics on the right. I would love to see it happen,” he told WND. “It’s a difference between being a politician and being a statesman. I think if someone stood up to the homosexual lobby and the courts, they would achieve hero status. We keep waiting for someone and it, unfortunately, never happens. I mean, 76 percent of the people voting can be wiped out by a single federal court decision?”
Thomasson said there is a big difference between California and conservative states like Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, all of which have either lost traditional marriage or are one judge’s decision away from losing it.
“It’s worse than criminal, because criminals usually hurt one person at a time, but the governors, if they betray the people by their cowardice in the face of a constitutional crisis, then they hurt many people by being AWOL,” he said. “The casualties will be the children. These Republican governors, by their own actions, are telling impressionable boys and girls ‘you can aspire to have a same-sex marriage for yourselves.’”
