Get To Know The Kentucky Clerk Who Won’t Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

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Meet Kim Davis. She is the clerk in Kentucky’s Rowan County, and won’t issue same-sex marriage licenses, due to her religion. The New York Times reports that she’s so serious about this cause that she stopped issuing all marriage licenses when the Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal in all 50 states, and then sued in federal court when Kentucky’s governor ordered all county clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay couples as well as straight ones.

Davis’ justification? It’s a religious one, of course, as the New York Times quotes her lawyers:

“Before taking office as county clerk in January 2015, Davis swore an oath to support the constitutions and laws of the United States and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, ‘so help me God,’ ” her lawyers wrote in an August court filing. “Davis understood (and understands) this oath to mean that, in upholding the federal and state constitutions and laws, she would not act in contradiction to the moral law of God, natural law, or her sincerely held religious beliefs and convictions.”

Davis says she had a religious awakening four years ago, and has since then tried to do her job and her volunteer work according to the tenets of her Christian faith. She had offered a weekly Bible study to female detainees at the county jail. This also extends to marriage licenses. In a statement, Davis lays out her justification: “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of a marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision.”

In the video above, you can see Davis refusing to grant a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore. When they ask, “under whose authority” is she turning them away, she replies, “Under God’s authority.” One of them then says, “I’m paying your salary…I’m paying you to discriminate against me.”

Much has been made of Davis’ hypocrisy, citing her four marriages as not preserving the sanctity of the institution. But who cares? Multiple marriages or not, Davis’ stance is infuriating.

(Via New York Times)

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