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Bucks same-sex marriage debate grows more heated

Another volley was traded Wednesday in what is becoming a contentious same-sex marriage debate among Bucks County officials. County Commissioner Diane Marseglia released a letter addressing the register of wills, saying he should withdraw briefs he submitted in court defending his decision to not issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. She called the briefs "a source of embarrassment to me personally and, I believe, Bucks County."

Another volley was traded Wednesday in what is becoming a contentious same-sex marriage debate among Bucks County officials.

County Commissioner Diane Marseglia released a letter addressing the register of wills, saying he should withdraw briefs he submitted in court defending his decision to not issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. She called the briefs "a source of embarrassment to me personally and, I believe, Bucks County."

Marseglia, the only Democrat of the three commissioners, wrote that she believed the briefs might harm the county's image and that the comments in them about same-sex marriages were "shocking, inappropriate, and degrading."

The briefs, filed last month, were a response to a lawsuit challenging the decision of the register of wills, Don Petrille, who in July declined to issue a marriage license to a lesbian couple.

The briefs argue that the right to marry is "rooted in the base biological fact that opposite-sex couples reproduce," and that same-sex marriage is "unable to serve all of the social goals of marriage."

Petrille, a Republican, said Wednesday evening that he was working on a reply to Marseglia's letter but was not sure when it would be finished.

Marseglia's remarks came just a day after the commissioners released a joint statement taking a more tempered stance regarding the briefs. Marseglia said she wrote Wednesday's letter to send a "more assertive" message.

The other commissioners were aware she was issuing another statement, Republican counterpart Charles Martin said. But neither he nor Chairman Rob Loughery chose to sign on.

Martin said he did not agree with everything in Marseglia's letter, such as assertions that tourism or the ability of the county to attract businesses could suffer from Petrille's briefs.

But Martin sided with Marseglia in thinking the briefs went too far in debating the virtues of traditional and same-sex marriage.

"That was not the role of that particular exercise," Martin said.