Thank God for Kim Davis!

A few words on the overpaid, antigay Kentucky clerk before she disappears back into obscurity.

Hers is the face that launched a thousand memes. Comedians, pundits, and political cartoonists have been praising the Lord for sending this arrogant buffoon to walk among us — and provide them with months of satirical material.

You may be longing for her image, her name, and her antics to finally disappear from your television set and your Facebook feed. But before she goes (and go she will), let us pause for a moment to give thanks for everything that Kim Davis has done to advance the cause of marriage equality.

Anyone who’s worked for social causes or presidential campaigns knows that true change comes not from the far left or the far right. It comes from winning the hearts and minds of the vast majority of reasonable but perhaps traditional Americans — commonly known as “the movable middle.”

While the Supreme Court victory for marriage equality felt like it was a long time coming for the gay community, it most likely came as something of a shock to social and/or religious conservatives who may not have gay or lesbian friends or family members whose rights they’d want to defend.

Then came Kim Davis, who flatly and repeatedly refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite the Supreme Court’s ruling — and the fact that she’d taken an oath to uphold the law of the land.

Egged on by her antigay attorneys, Davis became the poster child for religious intolerance, insisting her religious beliefs served as her inalienable right to discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans who simply want to spend the rest of their lives with the ones they love.

To the Bible-thumping, right-wing minority, Kim Davis is a hero. To everyone else, including the reasonable if conservative “movable middle,” she’s a bigoted clown. It’s hard to imagine any decent-minded conservative looking at Kim Davis and thinking, Yes, this woman speaks for me.

Davis and her antics have herded the majority of Americans to the belief that gay couples are entitled to marriage equality.

According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 63 percent of those surveyed believe Davis should be required to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Nearly three quarters of those surveyed believe it’s more important to treat everyone equally than to accommodate someone’s religious beliefs when the two principles conflict.

So on behalf of the LGBT community — and everyone else who believes in the inherent fairness of marriage equality — thank you, Kim Davis. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

ADAM SANDEL is a regular contributor to The Advocate.