Kim Davis jailed, 6 gay couples get licenses

MOREHEAD, Ky. With clerk Kim Davis in jail, half a dozen same-sex couples walked out of the Rowan County Courthouse on Friday elated to have marriage licenses in hand after tangling with the Apostolic clerk for months.

April Miller, a 54-year-old professor at Morehead State University, raised the form over her head when she emerged with her longtime partner, Karen Roberts, and shouted “we got it” to the roar of supporters demonstrating on the courthouse lawn.

Surrounded by media cameras, James Yates and William Smith Jr. leaned into a long, tearful embrace after their sixth attempt to obtain the paperwork proved successful, even as Davis’ legal team asserted that they were invalid. The crowd chanted “love has won” as the couple hugged Yates’ parents outside.

“This means, at least for this area, that civil rights are civil rights,” Yates said.

But the licenses also brought derision, including from one religious protester who called out “perverts” as Tim and Michael Long applied for the papers. The couple held a commitment ceremony in 2008 and changed their names but were denied the ability to legally marry.

Tim Long said the day carried great significance, and he felt “like we are accepted, like everyone else.” He said he was sorry that Davis is in jail “but she done it to herself.”

“We waited for years and years and years,” Long said. “I just thought it would never happen.”

It came a day after Davis was jailed for contempt by a federal judge and remained there after refusing a deal that would have allowed her to avoid incarceration while her office issued licenses.

Most of her deputies had agreed to issue the licenses Friday at the Morehead courthouse, which opened at 8 a.m. and had already drawn 100 demonstrators on both sides of the issue as well as dozens of media outlets from around the country.

Among those at the courthouse was Kim Davis’ husband, Joe Davis, who called U.S. District Judge David Bunning a bully for jailing his wife. He said she was in good spirits, has no intention of resigning and is prepared for months in jail.

Later in the day, Liberty Counsel, the group representing Davis, said at a news conference outside the Carter County Jail that the licenses issued Friday were “not worth the paper they are written on” because Davis has refused to provide them with her name. While she locked up inside the jail, she still has a free conscience, they said.

At the courthouse, deputy clerk Brian Mason, who issued licenses to six same-sex couples and two heterosexual couples before the office closed at 6 p.m., said he wasn’t certain if the forms, which did not bear Davis' name, were valid.

“I can’t guarantee nothing,” he said.

But those who got licenses were confident they would be honored.

As couples arrived at the courthouse Friday, about 10 police officers were keeping the two groups of demonstrators apart as emotions again ran high.

Some of the ire of Davis' supporters was directed toward Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, who has declined to call a special session to rewrite state law on marriage certificates, and his son Andy Beshear, who is running for attorney general. Davis’ supporters said a rally is planned at 11 a.m. Saturday outside the jail. Some criticized the deputy clerks for agreeing to issue the licenses.

“I think everybody in that office should have stood behind Kim Davis,” said Penny Stinnett, who accused the deputy clerks of backing down and selling “out their salvation.”

On the other side, Marsha Moore-Charles, pastor of Bluegrass United Church of Christ, said that while new civil rights are often slow to be accepted by some, the “onslaught of bigotry and prejudice” that has followed the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage has been “heartbreaking.”

Some said they hoped Friday’s events marked a turning point. Morehead resident Jerry Calvert, who wore a “Make cornbread, not war” T-shirt, called it a “good day,” saying “it’s about everybody being OK, living together.”

Others, however, said the battle over gay marriage likely wouldn’t be over anytime soon. Indeed, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was reportedly planning to visit Davis next Tuesday during a rally of supporters outside the jail. He has called her jailing “the criminalization of Christianity.”

Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at (502) 582-4697 or ckenning@courier-journal.com. Reporter Mike Wynn contributed to this story.