Some of you who may have heard about the town clerks in New York whose jobs are threatened or who have resigned because they refused to sign gay marriage licenses. Gay marriage is now legal in NY, and part of their jobs is to sign marriage licenses for citizens in their county. Since these clerks refused, they are facing/have faced losing their jobs.

Naturally, NOM (National Organization for Marriage) jumped all over this faster than a rat on a Cheetoh!

They produced the following videos to help spread the panic that religious freedom is being threatened.  Below you will find the video featuring Rose Marie Belforti. If you can keep from bringing up your latest meal, have a look.

What I find interesting about her commentary is that she claims she had no prior knowledge of gay marriage being made legal in her state. It took receiving a marriage certificate from two people of the same gender to clue her in. That is utterly preposterous. She works in a government office, where they receive updates on new laws, since, well, it’s their job to know these things. To claim ignorance is  ridiculous, especially when the topic was all over the media–newspapers, television, and the Internet. These laws weren’t made in secret as she seems to allude.

Additionally, she (and the other clerks who NOM gobbled up for their campaign of terror, Laura Fotusky and Ruth Sheldon, whose videos can also be found via Towleroad) now believes that doing her job threatens her religious freedom.

If she feels that strongly in her religious beliefs, then she can resign.

Shirking your assigned (or elected) duties based on religion isn’t a defense nor does it get you out of performing duties you promised to uphold when you took the job (or were elected).

What about if a doctor refused to treat a gay man who was ill because homosexuality went against his Christian beliefs? Would he be allowed to get away with it? What if a teacher didn’t want to educate African-Americans because she was a white supremacist? That teacher has a right to her beliefs, but does that mean she is not required by her job to educate all students?

If Belforti, Fotusky, or Sheldon are no longer capable of fulfilling their job duties as town clerks, then they need to find jobs where they can perform the expected tasks and remain true to their religious convictions.

Their religious freedoms don’t negate someone else’s civil rights, and no one gets to pick and choose what laws we follow.

These women aren’t victims. They placed their jobs in peril by refusing to sign the marriage certificates. Now, they have to suffer the consequences, as any other employee would.