US clerk refusing same-sex marriage licenses ‘divorced three times’
Kim Davis, the US court clerk refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the grounds that God trumps the Supreme Court, is facing claims of hypocrisy after it emerged that she has three divorces to her name.
US News reports that she first tied the knot in 1984, before marrying Joe Davis in the mid-1990s. They stuck it out until 2006, after which she married a construction worker. Two years later, she remarried Joe.
The outlet further alleges that Davis gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband – twins who were fathered by her third husband, but adopted by her second/fourth.
The claims clash with Davis’s insistence that she adheres very strictly to the Bible, especially as she has referred to issuing same-sex marriage licenses as “a Heaven and Hell decision”.
She said in a public statement: “I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage. To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience.”
She added: “I am not perfect. No one is. But I am forgiven and I love my Lord and must be obedient to Him and the Word of God.”
Davis ran for office last November and won by less than 500 votes, but residents of her town of Morehead have told The Guardian that she didn’t pipe up about her strong beliefs while campaigning. And in an unfortunate twist, the couple she has infamously rejected five times – David Ermold and David Moore – voted for her. “She ran on a Demcratic ticket, but clearly she’s not Democratic”, Moore told the newspaper.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a contempt motion with a district judge, asking the court to impose a financial penalty. But if she is charged with official misconduct, she could face up to a year behind bars.
But in lighter news, Funny Or Die have sent-up Kim in a fantastic Parks And Recreation-style parody, which re-uses brilliant lines first used by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. Watch below:
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Kentucky clerk could face jail for refusing same-sex marriage licences