New Mexico state Sen. William Sharer (R) joined by a group of GOP legislators plans to file a lawsuit against Doña Ana County for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In defense of traditional marriage, Sharer cited Alexander the Great.

Doña Ana County Cleak Lynn Ellins (D) began offering same-sex marriage licenses after New Mexico Attorney General Gary King (D) handed down a ruling that the equal protections required by New Mexico’s constitution made marriage statutes designating it as an act between one male and one female unconstitutional.

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Ellins announced last week that he would begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples under the U.S. Constitution, the New Mexico Constitution and the New Mexico Human Rights Act.

“I see no reason to make committed couples in Doña Ana County wait another minute to marry,” Ellins said.

A few days later, District Judge Sarah Singleton ordered Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar (D) to offer same sex marriage licenses as well or show up in court Sept. 26 to explain to the court why she should not have to.

Sharer and two dozen other Republican legislators said they plan to file a lawsuit this week to end same-sex marriage in Doña Ana.

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On his website, Sharer said he supports Alexander the Great’s “view of marriage.”

“Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) married a Bactrian woman – modern day Afghanistan. Alexander may have engaged in homosexual activity, but he married a woman,” the website says. “He directed his officers to stop “whoring” around and find a local woman to marry. Why? Because ‘It is only through blood relations that hatred and war will end.”

He said Ellins created his own law when he handed out same sex marriage licenses.

“A county clerk simply should not be allowed to create law out of thin air,” Sharer wrote on his website. “There is a way to change the law – little dictators should not be allowed to act as the sole lawgiver in a free society. My opposition to the County Clerk is based on the simple fact that he is not the dictator. He cannot change the law of New Mexico. Read past the first sentence and you will see that the law, as actually written, uses the terms male and female, bride and groom, and husband and wife.”

New Mexico does not have a law that explicitly bans same-sex marriage.

Jen Roper, a 44-year-old New Mexico woman dying of brain cancer, is suing the state for the right to marry her partner of 21 years: 45-year-old Angelique Neuman.

King said he would not fight lawsuits demanding same-sex marriage equality, ThinkProgress reported, which should be good news for Roper and Neuman.

Sources: ThinkProgress, New Civil Rights Movement

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