I guess it’s not really a big deal seeing as he’s let a black person use his bathroom and all. Of course I do not mean that at all and I am appalled by this. Especially because his reason is to prevent the creation of miserable people like me. Good God! I think when this man sees and interracial couple he sees (in his mind) something like this:
rather than this:
No Marriage License for Interracial Couple
By MARY FOSTER, AP
HAMMOND, La. (Oct. 15) – A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.
Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”
Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
“There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage,” Bardwell said. “I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”
If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.
“I try to treat everyone equally,” he said.
Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.
Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.
Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.
“That was one thing that made this so unbelievable,” she said. “It’s not something you expect in this day and age.”
…”It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. She said the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 “that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry.”
The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending “the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice.”
“He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it,” Schwartzmann said.
…”I’ve been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don’t think I’ve mistreated anybody,” Bardwell said. “I’ve made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married. I just told them I wouldn’t do it.”
mulatto diaries 
Unbelievable. I’m shocked and appalled that this kind of thing still happens, but in retrospect not entirely surprised given the geography. I am also one of those “miserable people” that he is talking about.
I live in New York City, and am pleasantly surprised on a daily basis by the number of interracial couples I see (of all combinations of races). I know everyone has their hang-ups, including me, and this country still has a long way to go, but it’s disappointing to know that some parts of the country are decades behind the rest.
The thing I always find the most ridiculous about people like Keith Bardwell is that he says “it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long” and that interracial children suffer, but he’s the only one so far making these peoples’ lives difficult! Not to mention, “I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married. I just told them I wouldn’t do it.” If every justice of the peace shared his opinion, it’s akin to telling them that they can’t get married. He should be fired immediately.
These people make me sad. I wish I could say I was shocked, but I’ve read recently that something like 17% of the population thinks miscegenation should be ILLEGAL. Not even that they don’t like it personally, but that it should be banned by law. Sad. Very, very sad. But hopefully, for every one person like Bardwell, there is at least one other person who thinks love, in all its forms, is beautiful.
“I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom…”
Well…give this racist “so-n-so” a hand!!!
No. Really…shouldn’t we give HIM the benefit of the doubt? After all,he’s only concerned about their future children!!!
Man!! When will it ever end?!?!
ALSO!! Notice how long he’s been justice of the peace…that’s pretty much all of our lives!! Not saying I’m old, but that’s a long time, lol 🙂
The guy is set in his ways…
sigh
Wow! He has many black friends that come to his house…like that proves he’s not a racist lol. Unbelievable!
i really like how he measures his black friends in “piles” really? I only refer inanimate objects in piles. I guess he sees the President of the United States of America as just another “tragic mulatto”
KILL IT WITH FIRE!
White trash who mix with apes, disgusting low lives.
Yeah those poor kids from those interracial relationships, people dislike them so much they even elect them president.
“No Marriage License for Interracial Couple”
Great! That’s the way it should be! Enough of this interracial promotion!!
True racism is mixing the races and destroying the two races who chose (out of selfish lust and a perverted sense of “love”) to destroy their own kind and create an abomination against nature. Of course Social engineering has brainwashed the majority of society to see the destruction of the races as “good” and “progressive” and the preservation of unique races as “mean”, “un-progressive” and “racist”. No wonder everything is going to Hell in a hand basket. I might not share the fundamentalist Christianity this judge does but he was right to refuse issuance of a marriage license to these two weirdos.