MOREHEAD, Ky. (AP) – A Kentucky clerk’s office turned away two gay couples seeking marriage licenses on Thursday, defying a federal judge’s order that dismissed her argument involving religious freedom.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ office rejected the couples’ bid for licenses just hours after the judge ruled she must do the opposite and wrote that the refusal “likely violated the constitutional rights of her constituents.”
Deputy clerk Nathan Davis says the office was advised by its attorneys with the Christian law firm Liberty Counsel to continue refusing same-sex couples as it appeals the ruling to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
James Yates and William Smith Jr., a couple for nearly a decade, were the second pair turned away Thursday. They also were turned away a month ago.
On Thursday, they described a disconnect between the office’s actions and their experience in the community of Morehead, a college town where they say has long been open and accepting. They held hands as they walked into the clerk’s office, and gay rights activists shouted “Good luck!” from the street, holding signs reading “clerk not clergy” and “obey the law.”