Date: 08-28-2015
Gay couple turned away 3rd time by Rowan clerk
MOREHEAD, Ky. – James Yates and William Smith Jr., a couple of nearly 10 years, left the Rowan County Courthouse on Thursday frustrated and angry after clerks refused them a marriage license for a third time in recent weeks.
But the pair promised to return.
“It’s just making us want to press more,” Yates said. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis “can’t get away with this because it will open the door for so many other rights to be just thrown away.”
Yates and Smith are among a handful of gay and straight couples who are still battling for marriage licenses in Rowan County two months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a constitutional right.
On Wednesday, judges with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay an injunction against Davis, who has refused to issue licenses to all couples since the Supreme Court decision.
However, a deputy clerk told Yates and Smith on Thursday that the office is still subject to a temporary stay that won’t expire until Monday and that he was instructed not to provide the paperwork.
Yates was fighting back tears.
“They don’t like gays, and they don’t want them to get married,” he said outside. “And they will burn the earth and not let straight people in Rowan County get married either.”
Smith said Davis is now blatantly breaking the law and hiding behind religion to discriminate – the last thing he expected in Morehead, which has always remained open to the LGBT community, he said.
“We should be celebrating right now, enjoying our lives together and enjoying the fact that we could spend our lives together and have it recognized by our country,” Smith said. “Now we are just kind of on nerves.”
Davis argues that signing off on the licenses for same-sex couples violates her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian.
U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning granted a preliminary injunction against Davis this month, writing that her religious convictions do not excuse her from performing official duties and upholding her oath of office. But Davis has appealed the order. (MORE)
By Mike Wynn
The Courier-Journal
