A gay couple was denied a marriage license for the third time in Kentucky on Thursday, after a Rowan county clerk refused to obey a federal court order telling her to comply with the law.
James Yates and William Smith Jr said that officials at Rowan County courthouse, led by clerk Kim Davis, refused to provide the couple with the paperwork for a marriage license on Thursday.
“It’s just making us want to press more,” Yates told the Courier-Journal. “She can’t get away with this.”
One of Smith’s deputies told the couple that the county clerk believes she can refuse to issue licenses until 31 August. The couple plans to return to the office the next day.
Same-sex marriage became legal nationwide on 26 June, but Davis is one of a handful of people who refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She did not come out of her office and declined to comment to reporters on Thursday, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling ordering Davis to issue marriages for gay couples and denied her request for a stay while courts heard her appeals.
On Thursday afternoon, the office closed, with a sign taped to the door that said: “sorry our office is closed for computer upgrades. ETA 1 hour.”
Davis left the office with her colleagues shortly after the sign was posted. They were met by demonstrators chanting “gay or straight, black or white, marriage is a civil right”, according to the AP.
Davis has said that issuing a license with her signature to a same-sex couple violates her religious beliefs. She was elected to office in November 2014 as a Democrat. She has been seeking counsel from Liberty Counsel, a Christian nonprofit legal group.
Hundreds of people rallied in support of Davis in Kentucky’s capital, Frankfort, on Saturday. The Frankfort Fairness Celebration, in support of LGBT rights, took place at the same time.
Two same-sex couples and two straight couples sued Davis in July. A US district judge then ordered her to issue marriage licenses, but delayed his order so she could appeal against the decision with the US sixth circuit court of appeals. The court on Wednesday denied her request to stay the district judge’s decision.
“There is thus little or no likelihood that the Clerk in her official capacity will prevail on appeal,” a panel of three judges wrote in the order.
