South Dakota Woman Says Clerk Compared Gay Marriage To Beastiality

Gay couples can now seek marriage licenses in every state in the country, thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get a warm welcome.

A woman waiting in line in the clerk’s office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota — one of the states where same-sex marriage wasn’t legal until Friday’s ruling — says she overheard the clerk comparing gay marriage to beastiality.

Ellee Spawn, who was waiting at the Minnehaha County treasurer’s office with her daughter Monday, told KSFY the county clerk was discussing the same-sex marriage ruling with a person ahead of Spawn in line.

“Her reaction to that was ‘well apparently I’m just going to marry my dog, because we can just marry whoever we want anymore,'” Spawn said. “It struck a cord; I thought that was wrong, you can’t compare beastiality with two consenting adults getting married — they’re not the same thing.”

Pam Nelson, the country treasurer, condemned the clerk’s remarks, and said “she has the right to think what she wants to think and say what she wants to say, but not on tax payer property and not on the taxpayers’ payroll.”

According to KSFY, the clerk told Nelson that there had been a miscommunication, and the clerk had been talking about her love for her dog, not the Supreme Court’s decision.