Alaska Rep. Dave Talerico, a Republican from Healy, has pre-filed a bill that would allow those authorized to perform marriages to turn away couples.
“(It) relieves them of any potential liability that they might be sued or required or forced to do something that they don’t choose to do… that’s outside of their faith.”
Talerico says that includes the right to turn down gay couples.
“We always want to separate church from state,” he says. “We should probably make sure we separate state from church as well.”
Talerico is one of a handful of legislators who have so far pre-filed bills for the upcoming legislative session.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
