NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee Legislature has overwhelmingly voted to ship GOP Gov. Invoice Lee a proposal that will ban marriage between first cousins.
The Home solid a 75-2 vote Thursday on the invoice after the Senate beforehand accepted it with none opposition.
However a very vocal opponent, Republican Rep. Gino Bulso, took up a lot of the debate time, as he argued for an modification to permit first-cousin marriages if the couple first seeks counseling from a genetic counselor.
In a earlier committee listening to on the invoice, Bulso lightheartedly shared a narrative about how his grandparents have been first cousins who got here to the U.S. from Italy within the Nineteen Twenties, then traveled from Ohio to Tennessee to get married. He and different lawmakers laughed, and Bulso voted for the invoice in that committee.
Then throughout Thursday’s flooring debate, the socially conservative legal professional argued that the danger of married cousins having a toddler with start defects doesn’t exist for homosexual {couples}. He contended there is no such thing as a compelling authorities curiosity to ban same-sex cousins from getting married, saying that will run afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s homosexual marriage choice.
He additionally couched his argument by saying that he thought the Supreme Court docket choice on homosexual marriage was “grievously improper.” Bulso has supported laws aimed on the LGBTQ neighborhood. That features a invoice he’s sponsoring that will largely ban displaying satisfaction flags in public faculty school rooms, which civil liberties advocates have contended runs afoul of the U.S. Structure.
“The query is, is there a public well being concern with a male marrying a male first cousin?” Bulso stated. “And I believe the reply is not any.”
Finally, lawmakers voted down Bulso’s modification and accepted the ban proposed by Democratic Rep. Darren Jernigan.
“I hope it’s secure to say that in 2024, we are able to shut this loophole,” Jernigan stated.
Jernigan stated a 1960 legal professional basic’s opinion decided that an 1820s Tennessee regulation proscribing some marriages amongst kin doesn’t forestall first cousins from marrying. He responded to Bulso that there was no violation to the homosexual marriage ruling in his invoice.
Republican Rep. Monty Fritts was the opposite lawmaker to vote in opposition to the invoice.
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