The demands for Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, to step down came after he wouldn't issue a marriage license to an interracial couple in Hammond, Louisiana.
"I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way," Keith Bardwell told AP. "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."
"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it. But I’m not a racist...I try to treat everyone equally."
Bardwell does give interracial couples the name of a local justice of the peace who will marry them. He's been a justice of the peace for 34 years.
Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, are considering filing a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Justice Department.
[http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/16/louisiana.interracial.marriage/#cnnSTCText]
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