Gay Couple Films Clerk Illegally Denying Them a Marriage License In KY

By Mark Shrayber  |  July 8, 2015 | 5:30pm
In Depth

On Monday, Casey Davis demanded that the American public give him relief from the hordes of gay couples forcing their way into the government office in which he works as a county clerk. Now, video has emerged of the other openly bigoted county clerk in Rowan County, KY refusing a gay couple a license and then calling the police on them.

While Kim Davis isn’t on the video for more than a few seconds—she requested the camera be turned off— the county clerk’s spirit is all over the footage of a long-together gay couple being denied the right to marry despite both the governor’s office and the supreme court establishing that all county clerks in every county had to issue marriage licenses despite personal beliefs (because that is how the government works). And even though David V. Moore and his partner have all the necessary paperwork (as well as printouts of the Supreme Court ruling and the governor’s memo) they’re still denied the right to marry because, as one employee says on the video, “she’s a Christian.”

What’s most insulting about the video—even more insulting than the fact that the police is called on the couple for filming and also the fact that the men are ignored while others are served—is the fact that the couple, who’s lived in Rowan County for over a decade and owns property there, is told that, while they may be good enough to reside there and pay taxes, they’re not good enough to be treated like equal citizens under the law.

This isn’t a case of gay people trying to get special rights or bullying anyone (as I’m sure FOX News will be spinning this by the end of the day), but a case of gay people trying to exercise the rights granted to them by the government.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Davis last week for refusing to issue marriage licenses—she’s one of several people who has just stopped granting them willy-nilly due to “religious concerns”—and released the following statement about her actions:

“Ms. Davis has the absolute right to believe whatever she wants about God, faith, and religion, but as a government official who swore an oath to uphold the law, she cannot pick and choose who she is going to serve, or which duties her office will perform based on her religious beliefs.”

Davis, in other words, is not being religiously persecuted; she’s being asked to do the government job she signed up for. Her job involves issuing marriage licenses, and if she chooses not to issue them, then she’s no longer suited for it much at all.

Contact the author at [email protected].

 
Join the discussion...