Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Reach Out To Supreme Court

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Advocates of same-sex marriage are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a new Mississippi law that lets government workers and business people cite their own religious objections to refuse services to LGBT people.

An appeal to the Supreme Court was filed within hours of when the law took effect Tuesday.

Legal experts say it’s the broadest religious-objections law enacted by any state since a ruling by the nation’s high court effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Championed and signed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in 2016, the law had been on hold amid court challenges.

It protects three beliefs: that marriage is only between a man and a woman, sex should only take place in such a marriage, and a person’s gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered.