IS JAILED COUNTY CLERK IN KENTUCKY A MARTYR?
KENTUCKY | MOREHEAD — As a defiant Kentucky county clerk sat in jail Friday, choosing indefinite imprisonment over licensing gay marriages, her lawyers compared her to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Other supporters reached for Biblical heroes, comparing her to Silas and Daniel, imprisoned for their faith and rescued by God.
It’s precisely the narrative gay rights advocates had hoped to avoid. But as Kim Davis’ mug shot rocketed around the Internet, it became clear that the gay rights movement must battle this idea that Christianity is under siege, said Kenneth Upton, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, a law firm specializing in LGBT issues. “This is what the other side wants,” he said, pointing to the image of Davis in handcuffs. “This is a Biblical story, to go to jail for your faith. We don’t want to make her a martyr to the people who are like her, who want to paint themselves as victims.”
The American Civil Liberties Union asked that she be fined rather than imprisoned, in part to avoid “a false persecution story,” said Dan Canon, one of the attorneys. But U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning ordered her to jail anyway, reasoning that she would be unmoved by monetary penalties.
How long Davis might remain behind bars is unclear. Civil contempt is often described as handing prisoners the keys to their own jail cells — they can get out as soon as they choose to comply.
But Davis has pledged that she never will.
“She elected to make herself a martyr,” said Columbia Law School Professor Katherine Franke. Davis has three choices now, Franke said: She can resign; she can relent and agree to issue licenses; or she can wait in jail until the Legislature meets in January to see if she’s impeached.