Videos After The JumpNY Daily News Reports
The Louisiana justice of the peace who caused a national controversy when he denied a marriage license to an interracial couple won't apologize for his actions.
"I'm sorry, you know, that I offended the couple, but I did help them and tell them who to go to and to get married," Keith Bardwell said on CBS' 'The Early Show' Monday.
"And they went and got married, and they should be happily married, and I don't see what the problem is now."
Bardwell, a justice of the peace in the state's Tangipahoa Parish, refused to issue the license to groom Terence McKay, who is African-American, and his white bride-to-be, Beth Humphrey, in early October. The couple was later married by another justice of the peace.
Bardwell, who is white, defended his actions, saying that he was worried about an interracial couple's future children and the hardships they would face.
"I've had countless numbers of people that was born in that situation, and that they claim that the blacks or the whites didn't accept the children," Bardwell told 'Early Show's' Harry Smith. "And I didn't want to put the children in that position."
But calls for his dismissal have continued around the country over the weekend.
"Disciplinary action should be taken immediately -- including the revoking of his license," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a statement Friday.
Bardwell's stance technically violates the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court Loving vs. Virginia ruling that state governments could not place race-based restrictions on marriage. But the official said he is within his legal rights to recuse himself from performing a marriage ceremony.
"It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong," Bardwell told WAFB on Saturday.
Justice Of The Peace Keith Bardwell Says "No Laws Were Broken"Couple Denied Marriage License To Seek Legal ActionRead more…
PerezHilton.Com Reports
The director of the now infamous "banned" Sprite commercial is speaking exclusively to PerezHilton.com!
Apparently, the backlash from releasing the spec commercial has resulted in some other works being taken down off the internet as well. The director, Max Isaacson, wanted to say his peace about his piece and we found it to be very interesting.
He says:
"At the heart of it all these spots were meant to exist as something of a social experiment. It went much better than I had expected. I wanted to do two things: first to make the spots, which I thought were pretty entertaining ideas; and second to release it to the world and see how many people would believe that it was real. I made sure to put under the description that they were spec commercials, but that seemed to have little import.
To be honest I just wanted to get a rise out of everyone. I was kind of knocked off my ass when I spent an hour reading on the Huffington Post about whether or not the ads were pulled because it was an interracial couple. I mean that's about five seconds of spray! How could it be real let alone banned for racial issues. One commenter said that they knew someone on the censorship board, and I didn't even plant that one.
We shot those spots for no more than three thousand dollars, total. The only thing we had to shell out for was the five foot tall Sprite can. The kitchen is my kitchen and the bedroom is my roommates. Everyone donated their services, and were awesome I must add, but this was as by the seat of my pants as it could be, but I guess if you tell a big lie long enough etc. etc.
I'm not really sure what else to say. I'm sad that the videos have been pulled so quickly, it's been something of a roller coaster day. I wish that everyone involved could have come to some kind of an accord, especially since there was no offense meant towards Sprite or the Coca-Cola corporation. C'est la vie, I guess.
I guess at the end of the day I just have to thank my lucky stars and get working on the next project. Who knows maybe I can make something else that will get people going as much as this did.
By the way, thanks for being one of the only sites to keep this online. Nice to know they're out there.
Thanks,
Max Isaacson"
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