Kentucky: First Same-Sex Couple Obtain Marriage License After Clerk Jailed

  William Smith Jr., right, and his partner James Yates, second right, speak with an unnamed clerk in an attempt to obtain a marriage license at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. The couple were denied despite the ruling of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding an earlier decision instructing the clerks to issue marriage licenses. This was the couple’s third attempt. (Timothy D. Easley / AP)

The first gay couple has been granted a marriage license in Rowan County, Kentucky since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, the day after Kim Davis, a Rowan County clerk was sent to jail for refusing to issue the license.

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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• September 3, 2015 Kentucky Court Clerk Kim Davis Jailed in Standoff Over Same-Sex Marriage Licenses (Updated)