A same-sex couple has been denied three times in trying to get a marriage license in Kentucky. Despite being ordered by a federal court to comply with the law on Wednesday, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis refused the couple again Thursday, according to The Guardian.
"She can't get away with this," said James Yates, who hopes to marry his boyfriend, William Smith, Jr., and federal law agrees that he's allowed to do so. Same-sex marriage was legalized through a national law on June 26 of this year. Davis, along with a few other county clerks in the U.S., refuses to provide marriage licenses for these couples. She would not comment when asked about her decision to turn away Yates and Smith on Thursday.
A federal appeals court upheld another court's ruling compelling Davis to issue the licenses on Wednesday. Her request for a stay so her appeal could be heard was denied, and she was ordered to comply with the law. But on Thursday, she did not. Demonstrators gathered outside Davis's office Thursday to chant "gay or straight, black or white, marriage is a civil right," The Guardian reported.
Davis says that issuing a license for a same-sex couple is a violation of her religious beliefs. She has been the Rowan County clerk since being elected in November 2014 as a Democrat. Davis is currently being sued by April Miller and Karen Roberts, a same-sex couple who would like to get married. They cried tears of joy when the appeals court upheld the ruling, according to The New York Daily News. Davis is also being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for her refusal to comply with the federal law.
Yates and Smith have said they will not give up in trying to get married, despite being turned away Thursday. They will probably find opposition when they go back; Davis has told reporters she will not resign as County Clerk, according to The Miami Herald.
