A friend of mine asked for more information on this since this isn't a topic frequently discussed. In response I decided to write this review of the law's actual text so that everyone could see HOW the State of Indiana's Legislature and Governor Pence made gay couples APPLYING for Marriage Licenses criminals.
Indiana HB 1041 isk the law the image refers to. It's wording is very complicated and the bill's language jumps around a lot (plus it has been heavily edited and has had multiple sections repealed) so it is honestly hard to follow. In order for the information to make sense I will have to jump around and connect different passages from the bill together. The bill was signed in 2013 by Governor Pence who was elected to office in 2012.
Remember that bold face text means text that was added to the bill as an amendment after the fact. Crossed out text means that text was removed by amendment after the fact.
HB 1041 (https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/bills/house/1041#document-1514b824) stated in lines 17-22 (page 3) under Section 5: IC 31-11-1-1 the following: "Only a female may marry a male. Only a male may marry a female. A marriage between persons of the same gender is void in Indiana even if the marriage is lawful in the place where it is solemnized."
Those lines clearly prohibited Gay Marriage in the State of Indiana, that's nothing new. And those lines were repealed with the Supreme Court's famous decision on Gay Marriage. The problem comes in farther down in this same bill. But this is where it gets a bit confusing because some sections that were repealed have also been completely redacted from the current bill which is (although heavily modified) still the standing law in Indiana.
Lines 27-31 (page 4) explains that two individuals may marry if they are not already prohibited from being married. Lines 7-8 (page 5) continues with: "the individual is not prohibited from marrying for a reason set forth in IC 31-11-1". IC 31-11-1-1 is the portion of the law that specifically forbids Gay Marriage.
The section titled IC 31-11-4 has been repealed since the bill was signed and has been redacted completely. But the original text of that section can be found at: ://iga.in.gov/.../titles/031/articles/011/chapters/004/pdf (note: it is a PDF download).
IC 31-11-4 included instructions for occasions when a marriage license might be denied, specifically IC 31-11-4-12. This section explains that a Clerk of Court may deny two people a marriage licence and that if contested the situation will be presented to a Judge in Court.
Just to make sure everything is clear:
So far the bill made Gay Marriage illegal, allowed a Clerk to refuse a Marriage License and send the Application to a Judge. But none of that shows that the bill made APPLYING for a Gay Marriage License a criminal offense. Don't worry I'm getting to that. This is just the background stuff so you can easily understand this next part.
The now repealed IC 31-11-4-4 also includes a list of components to Marriage Application. Included (besides basic identification information) is: "A statement of facts necessary to determine whether any legal impediment to the proposed marriage exists."
Remember that "Statement of Facts".
Lines 2-7 (page 9) is the final piece to this puzzle. "A person who knowingly furnishes false information to a clerk of the circuit court when the person applies for a marriage license under IC 31-11-4 commits a Level 6 Felony."
The result is that if you were a Gay couple and you signed a Marriage Application in the State of Indiana you committed a Level 6 Felony. The reason is because you were legally prohibited from applying for and receiving a Marriage License and yet you signed a document claiming that you were not prohibited from applying.
You might argue that some individuals might not have known about the details of the law. Unfortunately American law rarely accepts that argument since it is ultimately the duty of the citizen to verify all information regarding their behavior.
A Level 6 Felony is the lowest level of Felony charges and requires jail time between 6 months and 2 1/2 years, plus a fine of up to $10,000.
Only a few situations were affected by this wording, for the most part that included Gay Marriage and Polygamous Marriage (or Marriage Fraud).
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