The world changed forever on June 26, 2015. After 50+ years of LGBTQ activism and advocacy, 10 years of state-by-state progress, and months of waiting while the case of Obergefell v. Hodges was brought to and argued before them, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the right to marry the person one loves is a right that applies not only to heterosexual couples, but to same sex couples as well. In all 50 states. Forever. The euphoria was palpable, in print and electronic media, and especially on social media, where the hashtag #LoveWins was used on Twitter more than 5.5 MILLION times in the 24 hours following the announcement of the ruling. The beautifully written decision, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy (the swing vote who kept SCOTUS observers guessing until the very last minute) was announced just in time for Pride Weekend celebrations across the nation, and activists everywhere were awash in a sense of triumph, a sense that as treacherous as the road that had led us to this point had been, they could finally pause and catch their breath, if only for a brief moment.
Well, most activists did. Some of us, however, were aware of a new sense of foreboding. In the midst of the celebrations, some of us, mostly we activists who live in the Deep South and the central Appalachians, knew that there was still an obstacle that the Supreme Court had not cleared out of the way for same sex couples seeking a marriage license.
That obstacle is the Evangelical Right. And it's face is the face of the woman whose picture appears above.
Kim Davis has worked in the Rowan County, Kentucky clerk's office for over 30 years, and she has become the poster child for a small, but vocal minority of county clerks across the country who claim that their religious convictions prevent them from issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. Last week, a two same sex couples and two opposite sex couples in Rowan County filed a lawsuit against Davis demanding that she follow the law of the land, do the job she was elected to do and issue marriage licenses to all eligible applicants. The judge in the case heard arguments on both sides, including from Ms. Davis herself, who took the stand. In a statement that might remind the LGBTQ community of the bakery owners in Oregon who refused service to a same sex couple, Ms. Davis said, "If I say they are authorized, I'm saying I agree with it, and I can't." As with the bakery owners, Ms. Davis has likened the simple act of doing her job to somehow being implicitly involved in the same sex marriage ceremony, as though signing a piece of paper would somehow be akin to forcing her to attend the ceremony in her Sunday best and throw flowers at the couple as they walked down the aisle.
So it has gone for the first month of marriage equality. Here in Texas, where I live, things have gone more smoothly than anyone could possibly have imagined. Our own home grown poster child, equally as vexing but much less courageous than Ms. Davis in Kentucky, was Katie Lang, the clerk of Hood County, just outside of Ft. Worth. Like Ms. Davis, Ms. Lang initially claimed religious exemption, and put off a same sex couple not once, but twice before the couple filed a lawsuit. Unlike Ms. Davis, Ms Lang folded like a house of card the minute the lawsuit was filed and immediately began issuing marriage licenses to all couples. (The couple in question has not withdrawn their lawsuit, both to insure that the Hood County clerk's office continues their compliance, and to recoup their attorney's fees.) Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are falling in line kicking and screaming, with nine county clerks in Alabama still refusing to issue marriage licenses to ANY couple, gay or straight, rather than follow the law. (I still say one has to make a tremendous mental leap to fathom THAT level of homophobia.) And then there is what I call "The Kentucky Problem."
So here are my thoughts and solutions for the refusing clerks. First of all, I don't buy what Kim Davis is selling. There are many clerk's offices that have one or two staff members who are claiming religious exemptions from issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, but in most cases there is a clerk or clerks who have NO problem issuing such licenses and they are simply doing their jobs. Ms. Davis has not only refused to issue the licenses HERSELF, but has forbidden anyone ELSE in her office to issue them as well. That says to me , "This isn't about my religion. This is about me hating homosexuals." Second, there should not be any such thing as a religious exemption. Issuing a marriage license to a same sex couple does not make you a part of their marriage. The same sex couple does not care about your religious beliefs, any more than YOU should care about THEIR bedroom habits. The best thing for all concerned would be for those clerks who have religious issues that prevent them from doing their jobs to resign. Unfortunately, the Earth has shifted underneath you, and now you hold a belief that prevents you from doing your job. The Earth does that sometimes.
The bottom line is this: gay people are not going to accept being treated differently than straight people anymore. Not anywhere, not anyhow, not under any circumstances. Not in the public square, and not in private enterprise. The sooner that the public officials, who are paid with OUR tax money, realize that, the better.
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