A Syracuse City Court judge recently refused to officiate a wedding ceremony for a same-sex lesbian couple.

Judge Felicia Pitts Davis was scheduled to perform two weddings on Saturday November 16, one involving a heterosexual couple and one involving two women.

While Pitts Davis, who was elected to a 10-year-term on the bench in 2020, appeared to have no problem performing the first wedding, sources told Syracuse.com that she refused to perform the second one because it was a same-sex marriage, citing religious beliefs.

Another city court judge, Mary Anne Doherty, was called into the court to officiate the women’s marriage instead.

Shawntay Davis and Niccora Davis were the two women on the books to get married. They told Syracuse.com that they saw a heterosexual couple get married earlier in the day but that the judge in question left the courtroom without a word when it was the Davis’s turn to get married.

“It was real weird,” Shawntay said, but the couple wasn’t aware that Pitts Davis declined to officiate their wedding until a reporter later contacted them.

The couple said they could tell something wasn’t right, calling Pitts Davis’ behaviour “rude”, but went ahead with their marriage once Judge Doherty – who is also gay – was brought in to legally marry them.

According to state law, judges are now allowed to discriminate between officiating a marriage for a straight couple and a same-sex couple after the Marriage Equality Act was passed in 2011.

A spokesperson for the court told Syracuse.com that they were “aware of the allegation and have referred the matter to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct” though the commission said they could not confirm or deny whether a complaint had been filed as state law prevents complaints from being made public unless a judge is disciplined.

There is no record of judges being publicly disciplined by the commission for refusing to officiate a wedding for a same-sex couple.

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