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This is a story we’ve been watching simmer for a few days now. Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana Justice of the Peace, refused to issue a wedding license to a couple last week because they are an interracial couple. Predictably, this has not set well with groups like the ACLU and NAACP. Now, Bardwell has spoken out and given his reason.
Bardwell says he is not a racist, but that he is concerned that children of interracial couples do not easily integrate into society and that he doesn’t want to be a part of putting a child through that. He notes that he has “piles” of black friends and that he’s married black couples in his own home in the past, but that he’s always refused to marry interracial couples. Bardwell acknowledges that he has been warned by the state’s Attorney General in the past that he would eventually get into trouble for not performing interracial weddings, but has said that he will resign before endorsing such a marriage.
