REGION: Some employees refused to officiate at gay weddings

An undisclosed number of county employees declined to perform same-sex marriages Tuesday, the first full day gay couples were legally allowed to wed in California, County Clerk Gregory Smith said Thursday.

As a result, he said, some employees face reassignment or transfer. Others, threatened with reassignment, went ahead with the marriages.

Smith declined to say how many employees refused to perform the weddings or to issue licenses to same-sex couples.

He said it was the department's policy that workers were not allowed to choose which marriages they would perform and which they would not.

"No employee has been allowed to 'opt out' of performing marriage for certain couples, while retaining the responsibility to perform marriage functions for other couples," Smith said in an e-mail to the North County Times.

The department is exploring legal options about what to do with the employees who objected, Smith said.

"A few employees within the county clerk's department expressed bona-fide, sincerely held objections to participating in the process of issuing same-sex marriage licenses or performing same-sex ceremonies," Smith said.

Several employees withdrew those objections after they were told they would be reassigned, but others did not, Smith said.

Those who stood by their objection "are being accommodated via reassignment within the department or transfer to a similar classification in another department," Smith said.REGION: Some employees refused to officiate at gay weddings
North County Times, CA