7/20/11: Second NY Clerk Resigns Over Same Sex Marriage

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A second town clerk in upstate New York says she’s resigning over her religious objection to homosexual marriage, which becomes legal in the state on Sunday.

Ruth Sheldon, town clerk for 15 years in Granby, 25 miles north of Syracuse, said she has submitted her resignation effective Saturday.

Last week, Barker Town Clerk Laura Fotusky in Broome County announced her resignation. Both she and Sheldon said they felt signing a marriage certificate for a same-sex couple would violate their religious principles.

Meanwhile, the Alliance Defense Fund has issued a legal memo in defense of the municipal clerks on the grounds of religious belief. And New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, an evangelical organization that opposes same sex marriage plans to protest the law Sunday