Gay couple will try for a FIFTH time to marry, as anti-gay clerk sits in jail
A lesbian couple who have been rejected four times by the Rowan County clerk’s office will return on Friday to again request a marriage licence.
Found guilty of contempt of court, Kim Davis was remanded in custody by federal marshals yesterday.
The Rowan County clerk has continually ignored court orders instructing her to stop discriminating against gay couples.
She approached the US Supreme Court last week, asking for an order allowing her to continue turning away gay couples – the court declined.
April Miller and Karen Roberts will on Friday return to the office in Davis’ absence, with the hopes that her deputies will issue them a marriage licence.
Miller told the Associated Press that she was shocked at the order by Judge Bunning.
She plans to get their marriage licence and “show that piece of paper off for a minute or two”, before going home and having a quiet life together.
“We look forward to [Friday] as a couple,” she said. “It will be a very important day in our lives.”
Plaintiffs in the case yesterday asked that Davis be fined as punishment, but the judge in the case said she needed to be taken into custody.
The attorney for the gay couple who sued Davis told reporters that the clerk “holds the keys to her jail cell”, through her refusals.
Davis rejected a deal proposed by attorneys for the plaintiffs in a case against her, who said she could be released if she agreed to allow her deputies to marry gay couples.
US District Judge Dave Bunning said she should be remanded in custody until she complies with several orders, including one issued by him, that she stop discriminating against same-sex couples.
By 4pm on Thursday, five out of six of Davis’ deputies had agreed to Bunning that they would issue marriage licences to gay couples.
The one remaining holdout is Davis’ son, but he has been told he won’t face fines or jail for doing so, as the others, some reluctantly, had agreed to issue the licences.
