Kentucky: First Same-Sex Couple in Rowan County Obtain Marriage License After Jailing of Clerk
James Yates and William Smith Jr. were Rowan County's first same-sex couple to be granted a license to wed since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized such marriages. It was the sixth time they had tried to obtain a marriage license, finally succeeding the day after County Clerk Kim Davis was sent to jail for refusing to issue the licenses.
William Smith Jr., right, and partner James Yates speak with a clerk's office staff member Aug. 27 in one of their unsuccessful attempts to obtain a marriage license at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky. (Timothy D. Easley / AP)
The day after Clerk Kim Davis was sent to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Rowan County, Ky., the first such license there since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage was granted to James Yates and William Smith Jr. It was their sixth attempt.
From The Guardian:
James Yates, 41, and William Smith Jr, 33, locked hands and entered the office of clerk Kim Davis at around 8.05am on Friday. It was the sixth time the couple, from Morehead, had attempted to get a license.
Surrounded by a gaggle of reporters, Yates and Smith obtained their license from deputy clerk Brian Mason – one of the deputies who told a judge yesterday they would comply with his order to carry out the marriages following the jailing of Davis for refusing to do so.
As the couple exited the clerk’s office – a site that has become a focal point for religious conservatives across the US who are opposed to same-sex marriage – a man shouted to the crowd outside: “They got it!” Supporters broke out in a repeated chant of “love has won.”
Yates told reporters he was “relieved and happy” about the turn of events. In recent days, Davis’s office has declined to issue licenses to several couples, including Yates and Smith, despite an order from the US supreme court mandating otherwise.
Asked why it was important for them to receive their license in Rowan county, Smith told the Guardian: “This is where we live.”
Yates said they currently had two dates in mind to tie the knot, but had yet to firm up plans.
Asked if they expected getting the license to go smoothly, Smith told the Guardian: “We were hoping it would.”
Before the clerk’s office opened its doors, Davis’s husband, Joe, jeered the same sex marriage proponents and held a sign that said: “Welcome to Sodom + Gomorrah.”
“It ain’t nothing about licenses … it’s about persecuting Kim,” Mr Davis said of the clerk’s opposition. His wife is in “high spirits”, he told the Guardian, and she’s willing to stay in jail “as long as it takes.”
Read the full article here.
–Posted by Roisin Davis
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