By: Harman Kaur
June 26, 2015 is a date that will be celebrated by every same sex couple in the United States. On that date, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that states banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. While there were protests against it, they were overshadowed by the mass celebration that spread across America. Only there was one act of defiance that continued, still continues, to dominate the news when it comes to the new legislature. Kim Davis.
Kim Davis is one of the highest profile county clerks in the United States and it is because of her defiance to hand out marriage licenses to couples of the same sex. Why does she refuse to hand out marriage licenses? Davis continues to say that the idea is against her faith and belief system. On September 3rd, U.S. District Judge David Bunning had enough, ordering Kim Davis to be arrested for contempt of court. The very next day Rowan County witnessed its first same-sex marriage. But even from a jail cell Kim Davis rejected the license, telling her lawyer that it was not valid since she had not signed or approved it.
Kim Davis returned to work in tears on Monday, September 14th after a five day sentence in jail. Although she went back to work, she stayed out of sight for the most part and did not try to stop her deputies from handing out marriage licenses–choosing not to hand them out herself. She did say that she did not consider these licenses valid either due to the fact that she had not signed them and they had been altered to remove her name. Worrying couples about the legitimacy, they turned to the federal government for which Judge Bunning said the altered licenses would be accepted even if he was not sure about the legitimacy of them. Kentucky’s governor, Steve Beshear, said that the licenses were legal and valid no matter of Davis’s signature being on the licenses or not.
With all this chaos in Rowan County, Kentucky has a long battle to go when it comes to Kim Davis. Anti-Gay supporters are supporting Davis in her wishes for the Supreme Court and States to create a loophole for clerks whose religious beliefs do not agree with the Court’s decision and give them an out in handing out licenses. LGBTQ supporters are hoping that Davis will either start doing her job or simply just resign. This is not going to be a simple fix for both parties but we are hoping for a happy ending for all couples, homosexuels and heterosexuals.
