Woman who wouldnt issue gay wedding licenses
Race That Includes Gay Man Denied Marriage License By Kim Davis Gets Lots Of Attention
A local political race in a northeast Kentucky town is drawing attention well beyond the Appalachian community. A gay man who was refused a marriage license by the current county clerk is running for that very position.
David Ermold hopes to win his Democratic primary race Tuesday, so he has a chance to unseat Kim Davis. Davis is the woman who wouldn’t grant him and his now-husband their marriage license three years ago. Media attention is affecting all four candidates in the county race.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon in the town of Morehead, Kentucky. Azure and white signs with the words "leadership," "fairness" and "responsibility" line the front yard of David Ermold’s campaign headquarters on East Main Street. Ermold is one of four Democrats running in the May primary hoping to eventually become Rowan County’s Clerk.
”If you were refused service from one of your elected officials, I know no other way or any other reason to get into a race," Ermold says. "That's why you replace those officials: because they literally are not serving their electorate."
A University of Pikeville English profe
Kentucky clerk jailed for defying court orders on male lover marriage
A US judge has ordered that a Kentucky official be jailed for contempt of court after she repeatedly refused to issue marriage licences to gay couples.
Kim Davis has said that her Christian faith should exempt her from signing the licences.
The US Supreme Court declared gay marriage legal in June.
After interviewing her fellow clerks, the assess said Ms Davis could go free if she allowed her deputies to grant the licences, but Davis refused.
Ms Davis, an elected official in Rowan County, has said the Supreme Court's ruling conflicts with her beliefs as a born-again Christian.
"You can't be separated from something that's in your heart in your soul," Ms Davis said. "I promised to love Him with all my heart, brain and soul because I wanted to make heaven my home."
US District Assess David Bunning said he had "no alternative" but to jail her, because issuing fines would not change her mind.
"Her excellent faith belief is simply not a viable defence," said Mr Bunning. "Mrs Davis took an oath. Oaths mean things."
Kentucky clerk Kim Davis jailed for denying same-sex marriage licences on religious grounds
A Kentucky county clerk has been sent to jail by a United States federal court judge for refusing to issue marriage licences to gay couples because of her religious beliefs.
Key points:
- Public clerk is refusing to marry same-sex attracted couples on religious grounds
- Judge sends Kim Davis to jail for contempt
- Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee backs Ms Davis's stance
Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, 49, was led away by US marshals after judge David Bunning found her in contempt of court.
"The court doesn't do this lightly," Mr Bunning said as he ordered she be taken into custody.
facebook kentucky vidMr Bunning said his earlier injunction ordering Ms Davis to issue marriage licences applied to everyone and not just the four couples whose suit in July had accused Ms Davis of not doing her job.
The assess elicited a pledge from five of Ms Davis's six deputies to issue the licences.
But her lawyers said she would disapprove them that authority, raising questions about the legitimacy of any licences they might issue.
Ms Davis has refused to issue licences to any couples, male lover or
Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing gay marriage licenses
US District Judge David Bunning said he had no choice but to send Rowan County clerk Kim Davis to jail for not agreeing to issue marriage licenses to queer couples.
Davis, who has been against the US Supreme Court ruling permitting gay marriages, insisted that her conscience would not let her to track the federal court's decision.
"Marriage is a union between one man and one woman," Davis said when she was being questioned in court earlier.
Before she was taken away by police officers, she said, "God's moral law conflicts with my job duties…You can't separate something that's in your heart and in your soul."
However, Bunning managed to elicit a pledge from five of Davis' deputies, who said they would authorize marriages between same sex partners. He also said he could let Davis to travel free if she promised not to interfere with her deputies' work, but her lawyers argued that their client could deny her subordinates the right to issue official papers to homosexual couples.
Same sex couples in Rowan County would now have to evaluate whether the officers carried out the orders, Bunning told the court.
Not 'above the A former clerk who refused to give a marriage licence to same-sex couples has been ordered by a judge to pay legal fees to one couple's lawyers. Kim Davis was found guilty by a jury last year of violating the Kentucky couple's constitutional rights. On Tuesday she was ordered to pay $260,000 (£205,896) in fees plus $100,000 damages she already owed them. Ms Davis was briefly jailed in 2015 for ignoring the US Supreme Court's ruling that legalised same-sex marriage. She said she did not comply with the couple's request for a marriage licence because she believes marriage is between a man and woman, citing her religious beliefs as an evangelical Christian. Her lawyers argued in court that the legal expenses were excessive, but the judge saw it differently, saying Ms Davis must pay since they won the lawsuit. "They sought to vindicate their fundamental right to marry and obtain marriage licences and they did so," Judge David Bunning said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Judge Bunning is the same judge who ordered her jail period in 2015
Kim Davis handed new legal bill in gay marriage licence case