Mo. county board votes to lower flags to protest same-sex marriage decision; likely will recant

Officials in a rural Missouri county who voted 3-0 on Monday to lower flags to half-mast for a year to mourn the Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex marriages said on Tuesday they "would likely meet this week to rescind the vote out of respect for veterans and those serving in the military," Doug Moore reports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Dent County (Wikipedia map) Commissioner Gary Larson said, “It ain’t what our Bible tells us. It’s against God’s plan."

Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said community members agreed with the commissioners' stance on same-sex marriage but felt lowering the flag was the wrong way to protest the decision, Moore writes. Skiles said "members of the military and veterans told him that lowering the flag should be reserved as a way to pay respects to fallen soldiers and dignitaries who die."

"Skiles, a cattle farmer, said he will not propose any other action to replace the flag lowering," Moore writes. He told Moore, "I think we made our point that we are strongly disappointed. We had to be very, very strongly disappointed to even do this." He said the decision by the Supreme Court hurt him "deep down inside, like the death of a near and dear loved one." (Read more)