Another person who takes a job requiring that they serve LGBTQ+ people equally with straight people who think their religious beliefs should exempt them from the rules everyone else in the job must follow. Because you know fundamentalist Christians are special … right? Look if you don’t want to do the job because of your religious beliefs find a different job. Seriously what you believe doesn’t make you special or allow you to violate your job protocols. Just as you can’t refuse to serve black people at the lunch counter or refuse to marry mixed race people, you have to follow the laws in your state. Plus I don’t understand the hate. Christians don’t own marriage. Marriage is not a religious ceremony alone. This is even a civil setting. Plus no church or religious figure can marry anyone legally without state permission. It is a civil right, not a religious one. Hugs
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh issued statements after a Syracuse.com | Post Standard article revealed that City Court Judge Felicia Pitts Davis refused to officiate a wedding of two women.
The article reported that on Nov. 16 Pitts-Davis declined to marry the couple on the same day she married a heterosexual couple. The judge cited her religious beliefs as the reason she would not perform the marriage, two sources told Syracuse.com.
Another city court judge, Mary Anne Doherty, came into court to officiate the women’s marriage.
Hochul said on X that marriage equality is a fundamental right in New York. She said judges do not get to pick and choose who they will and won’t marry.
“No one should be subject to hate or discrimination simply because of who they love. Any judge willing to officiate a wedding in their courtroom cannot pick and choose who deserves a wedding,” Hochul said in a post on X.
The governor linked to the Syracuse.com article.
Mayor Ben Walsh said Syracuse is a growing city that embraces diversity and creates opportunity for all.
“Judge Pitts-Davis’ refusal to perform a wedding ceremony for a same-sex couple doesn’t align with this vision and, importantly, doesn’t comply with state law,” the mayor said in a statement.
The mayor called on the state Commission on Judicial Conduct to review the matter “expeditiously.”
Onondaga County Democratic Chairperson Max Ruckdeschel said in a statement that the judge’s behavior is contrary to the values of the Democratic Party and that the judge should resign.
“It is the role of every judge to provide equal justice under the law to every American, no matter their race, creed, or sexual orientation,” Ruckdeschel said. “A judge literally turning her back on two people looking to be married is an outrage and Judge Pitts Davis should face repercussions for her actions.”
The Democratic Party committee had previously declined to endorse Pitts Davis for city court judge, according to Ruckdeschel. And her refusing to fulfill her judicial oath “disqualifies her from any future consideration for our endorsement,” he said.
Pitts Davis won a primary to run on the Democratic line in the general election and was elected to office in 2020.
The Syracuse Republican Committee issued a statement Thursday calling for Pitts Davis to resign or be removed.
“Judge Davis’ refusal to perform a same-sex marriage is not only inexcusable and reprehensible, but is ground for immediate removal from the bench,” the statement said. “If Judge Davis has any shred of integrity or respect for the law and the people of the city of Syracuse, she should step down.”
If Pitts Davis doesn’t step down, the state Office of Court Administration should swiftly remove her from the bench “before any further damage can be done to our sacred judicial system,” the statement said.
CNY Pride, a local LGBTQ+ advocacy group, and City Auditor Alexander Marion put out statements Wednesday calling for Pitts Davis to resign.
CNY Pride said her actions were a “disgrace” to her position as an elected judge. They also called for a “full ethical investigation” into Pitts-Davis’ conduct since she took the bench in 2020.
“Judge Pitts Davis’s refusal to marry same-sex citizens of Syracuse and Onondaga County is despicable and contrary to her judicial oath,” CNY Pride said in the statement.
Marion, an LGBTQ+ elected citywide official in Syracuse government, is also calling for Pitts Davis to resign. He put out a statement saying the judge should quit or be suspended by the state Office of Court Administration.
Saying he was “deeply disturbed” by the Syracuse.com article, Marion said Pitts Davis was violating judicial guidelines that guard against discrimination.
State Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Brad Hoylman-Sigal also called on Pitts Davis to resign.
“If a judge can’t follow the law and do her job as directed by the New York state constitution and the United States Supreme Court, she should step down,” the senator told the New York Post. “I find it appalling that someone who professes to work on behalf of the public takes a piecemeal approach to their responsibility.”
Davis for nearly two weeks has not responded to repeated inquiries from Syracuse.com.
Under state law, judges may not unlawfully discriminate by officiating a marriage for a male-female couple, but refuse to do the same for a same-sex couple, according to a state court spokesperson, Al Baker.
The state court system is aware of the allegation and referred the matter to a state disciplinary commission, Baker told Syracuse.com.
For nearly two weeks, local and state court officials would not answer questions from Syracuse.com about what happened in court that day. They would not even acknowledge that any weddings happened in court that day.
On Tuesday, Baker responded with a one-sentence email: “We are aware of the allegation and have referred the matter to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.” He again did not respond to questions about that statement.
Earlier, Baker emailed to Syracuse.com the judicial standard Pitts Davis appears to have violated but would not confirm she had refused to marry the same sex couple or that another judge had to step in:
“Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated by the UCS. Under New York Law, Judges are authorized, but not obligated, to perform marriages. Judges who choose to perform marriages may not unlawfully discriminate when deciding which couples they will marry.”
In 2011, the Marriage Equality Act was passed in the state of New York, granting same-sex couples the ability to enter into civil marriages. The act declared that marriage is a fundamental human right. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples.
Shawntay Davis, 33, and Niccora Davis, 29, on Tuesday confirmed to Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard they were the same-sex couple ditched by Pitts Davis and instead married by Doherty on Nov. 16.
Shawntay Davis and Niccora Davis are married by Judge Mary Ann Doherty in Syracuse City Court on Nov. 16, 2024. The judge is behind the two women.Provided photograph
Editor’s note: This article updated on Thursday with a statement by the Syracuse Republican Committee.
Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com
Yesterday I was reading Oliver Willis’s Substack (with a great photo of Kal El, as always,) and he’s begun a news aggregator for liberals/progressives called Breaking News USA. Oliver Willis knows of what he speaks, so I’ve bookmarked it to look at every day. Today, I ran across 2 I want to post here today.
Women walking into the bathroom on Capitol Hill Thursday morning found a buoyant dance party in progress: A group of trans artists and activists staged a protest in a women’s restroom in the U.S. Capitol, dancing to the song “Meeting in the Ladies Room” by the all-women pop and R&B band Klymaxx.
Thursday’s dancing protesters include trans actor James Rose, nonbinary influencer Jerome Trammel, comedian Elizabeth Booker Houston, influencer Alexis Rose, transgender model June Raven Romero and activist Hope Giselle-Godsey. A video posted online starts with a panorama of the Capitol building’s interior before panning to a nearby restroom filled with dancing women. Some wear shirts with the colors of the transgender pride flag, pink, blue and white, and slogans like, “Flush the Hate, Not Our Rights” and “Trans People Are NOT Dangerous. You Are!” (snip-MORE)
The campaign is over; the election is done. The cases against Donald Trump—for the theft and improper storage of sensitive and classified government materials; for the effort to obstruct election administration in Georgia; for the attempt to overthrow the government of the United States on January 6, 2021—are wrapping up, unfinished in some cases and never really started in others. His sentencing for the 34 felony counts where he was found guilty of falsifying business records to hide election interference has been postponed indefinitely. In the executive branch, the transition is underway, complete with smiling photo ops and assurances from President Biden that he won’t stifle or undermine the incoming administration the way he was hampered—by the very man Biden is welcoming back to power. Everything is on track for January 20, 2025: the day that Joe Biden will cease to be president, and Donald Trump will be crowned as king.
There is no question that Donald Trump will not be limited by the Constitutional strictures on the presidency. Not only has the Supreme Court granted his absurd and expansive view of executive power as per Trump v. U.S., but Trump has spent the last four years out of office actively campaigning for the right to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, without consequences. The incoming Republican Congress won its power on much smaller margins than Trump took the presidency, and he is barely two million votes ahead of Harris in the popular vote. Neither the slim and chaotic majority in the House nor the thoroughly Trumpified Senate will reject his whims, either because they’ll agree with his interests or they’ll be too cowardly to object if they don’t. Trump’s early appointments—sex pests and conspiracy theorists, incompetents, lackeys, bootlickers, and sycophants—reveal the nature of what this administration will be. These aren’t people put into place to work for the American people; they will be installed to preserve, protect, and defend the interests of one Donald J. Trump, damn the country.
Yet King Trump, first of his name, is not an inevitability.
It’s his blatant disregard for the Constitution, the disinterest and disrespect for its limitations, checks and balances, that provides us with one last chance to derail the coming coronation. On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood at the Capitol of the United States and swore an oath to the country, the one every president has taken, as prescribed in Article 2, Section 8 of the Constitution. And on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump broke that oath in an attempt to overturn the election, overthrow the duly-appointed government of the United States, and install himself as dictator. It was, in word and deed, an insurrection. And, despite our republic’s long history of peaceful transfers of power, we have an answer for that, if we will only ask the question.
Does the 14th Amendment apply to Donald Trump? (snip-MORE)
I only got up about 2 hours ago; I was up late again, and stayed abed like a lazy person. I just read this in email, and it really hit the spot for me! Enjoy.
“Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding, the third.”
Good morning! Time to go to work, if we don’t want to go back. First, it is time to call and write our Congress critters to let them know we want no human thrown under the bus in the Republican rush to pick on people they think are less than or “other.” Their majorities in our federal legislative houses are thin; razor thin; so if we will let those legislators know what we want, enough of them will see to at least stemming the damage. They have their ways; plus, the Dem minority numbers are big enough to toss rocks in the works, especially with a few Republicans. For more on this, please see this Substack that Janet passed to me:
For the click-adverse, here’s the snippet from which I’m working here today:
I am but one person and cannot speak for our entire community. But here’s what I propose in the spirit of Queer Nation, who in the 1990s carried out myriad protests under the same banner but with no singular leader or directive.
I propose that on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 (the first day that both the House and Senate are back in session), all of us who are invested in this issue and have a platform (whether it be a blog, newsletter, column, podcast, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.) publish a piece with the shared title: “LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back.” Yes, I know, it’s a cheesy title, but it holds Democrats accountable to their own talking points and makes it clear that backsliding on LGBTQ+ rights is nonnegotiable for us.
What you write or say or express in your op-ed or article or video or podcast etcetera is up to you. I encourage you to make it personal and feel free to tailor it to your audience. My only request (other than all of us using the same title) is that you implore people to contact their Congressperson and Senators (and perhaps even local politicians) and tell them that 1) you will not tolerate any backpedaling on LGBTQ+ rights whatsoever, and 2) if they fail to strongly stand up against these attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, then you will take your vote elsewhere next election. (snip-More)
So, as to allies going back. For myself, if my friends are somehow rolled back, I will have to resist in different ways than I did in the past, except for the bothering of Congress critters, which continues apace. The past was fun and dangerous and sometimes more fun because it was dangerous but none of us got hurt or even threatened with arrest, unlike some places we read about in history and more recent times. I wrote a whole thing about those experiences, but it seemed to overshadow this, so some other time. Meanwhile, I’m going to schedule this, then copy it to my Substack, then letter blast some Congress critters, then Go To Bed. I’ve stayed up late most of the long weekend, but that doesn’t work well for me, so.
I encourage Scottie and Randy to post something with this title, and to make a call or send an email if they have time. I encourage any other blogger who reads this to please post something with this title, and also to bother your Congress critters about treating people the way they want to be treated, and opposing bills and resolutions that divide and “other” We the People. I hope we all have a great day, and get something done! And, thank you Janet, for passing this along!
We deserve it. This evening’s national and world news is unbearable. I don’t mean the Trump crap; I mean the real-people-doing-real-people things like trying to live in tents in the Carolinas, people stuck on highways in 23 degree temps, or people trying to help other people survive in the Middle East and Ukraine, Sudan, etc.-that is unbearable. So, the fairies decorated today while I decorated. I sometimes see them flitting around (the white lights,) but they decorated their big trees! Enjoy some beauty because we are fortunate to be able to do so.
Sublime landscapes were those rare places on earth where one had more chance than elsewhere to glimpse the face of God. —“The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” by William Cronon
The “sublime landscape” is not a place to catch a glimpse. These places are where the creators, Gods, deities and powerful beings live. At Waw Giwulig I’itoi’s home is found. O’odham climb the peak to be in the goodness of the Creator. At Mauna Kea the Goddess Pele resides. Hawaiians climb a volcano and humble themselves there. At San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff Kachinas and Ye’ii Bi Cheii spirits live. They climb down the mountain blessed with songs and prayers when Navajo and Hopi call them. In the Grand Canyon many Gods, deities, and powerful beings stay in these rock walls and cliffs holding vigil for their people. In this powerful place are all the sacred beings. The Hualapai, Havasupai, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo and others know they are there. The people simply don’t “catch a glimpse” of holy beings they sing them; they pray them in these places.
Scottie's Playtime 