Kentucky marriage licences issued
With defiant clerk in jail, Rowan County gay couples are now joining in matrimony
MOREHEAD, KY.— A jailed Kentucky clerk asserted that marriage licences issued without her authority Friday to gay couples in Rowan County are void and “not worth the paper they are written on,” because she didn’t authorize them, her attorney said.
Kim Davis now wears an orange jumpsuit and “has already been doing Bible studies with herself” in jail, her attorney Mat Staver told reporters after meeting with her behind bars. He said Davis is in very good spirits, and is prepared to stay as long as it takes to uphold her religious freedoms.
“She’s not going to resign. She’s not going to sacrifice her conscience. So she’s doing what Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about in his ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail,’ which is to pay the consequences for her decision,” Staver said.
The lawyer said he’s preparing to appeal U.S. District Judge David Bunning’s contempt finding as one of several legal challenges on Davis’s behalf.
The vast majority of officials across the U.S. have agreed to issue licences since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in June. But Davis had turned away couples again and again in defiance of a series of federal court orders, citing her religious beliefs.
At least three gay couples received marriage licences Friday from one of Davis’s deputies, embracing and cel- ebrating after repeatedly being turned away before Davis was jailed on Thursday. Marriage licences in Kentucky usually have the elected clerk’s signature on them; those handed out Friday lacked any signature. The Rowan County attorney and lawyers for the gay couples said they are legal and valid nevertheless.
When the judge was asked if the licences will be considered valid without Davis’s authorization, he said it was up to the gay couples to take that chance.
William Smith Jr. and James Yates, a couple for nearly a decade, were the first through the door.
Deputy clerk Brian Mason congratulated the couple, shook their hands and accepted their fee of $35.50. Yates then rushed across the courthouse steps to hug his mom.
“Civil rights are civil rights and they are not subject to belief,” said Yates, who had been denied a licence five times previously.
A crowd of supporters cheered and a street preacher rained down words of condemnation as they left.
Yates and Smith said they are trying to choose between two wedding dates and plan a small ceremony.
Davis had refused to issue any marriage licences rather than comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June legalizing gay marriage nationwide.
After ordering her to jail, the judge told her six deputy clerks that they too faced potential fines or jail time if they similarly refuse. All but one, Nathan Davis, the clerk’s son, agreed to end her church-state standoff.
A second couple, Timothy and Michael Long, got their licence later Friday, enduring a taunt of “More sodomites getting married?” from a man inside the office. The Longs did not respond, and a worker told the man to leave. A third couple, April Miller and Karen Roberts, got their licence around midday.
“Now we can breathe. I’m still ecstatic and happy. I just can’t wait to get married now,” Roberts said.
The judge offered to release Davis if she promises not to interfere with her employees issuing the licences, but she refused.
Davis’s husband, Joe Davis, also came to the courthouse Friday, holding a sign saying “Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah!”
He said his wife was in good spirits after her first night in jail. Asked if she would resign, he said, “Oh, God no! She’s not going to resign at all. It’s a matter of telling Bunning he ain’t the boss.”