Threatened with lawsuit, Miss. agriculture museum processing application for same-sex ceremony

Source: AP

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, August 9, 1:59 PM

JACKSON, Miss. — Faced with the threat of a federal lawsuit, Mississippi officials have relented on a ban on same-sex commitment ceremonies at a state-owned museum and are processing a permit for two women.

The Southern Poverty Law Center sent a letter to the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum in Jackson on July 12, threatening to sue if officials didn’t allow Ceara Sturgis, 20, and her partner, Emily Key, 19, to hold a ceremony there this fall.

Republican Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith said in a statement Thursday that same-sex ceremonies are against her religious and personal beliefs, but there’s nothing in state law to block prohibit them. She said the museum is processing the permit application, but there are several steps and it hasn’t been finalized.

The museum had refused to allow the ceremonies in the past based on a 2009 opinion by Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood. The museum had said it interpreted commitment ceremonies to represent a union and that the 2009 opinion said it could ban the ceremonies because same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in Mississippi.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/miss-backs-off-ban-on-same-sex-ceremonies-at-state-owned-museum-1st-permit-allowed/2012/08/09/c7cc1b88-e252-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html