When Kim Davis—the infamous anti-gay county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky—told ABC news reporter Paula Faris on “Good Morning America” that she had gay friends, apparently she was telling the truth. A least one gay man stepped forward to back her up.
Well, sorta.
Dallas Black, also of Moorhead, Kentucky, told The Daily Beast he was friendly with her:
Black said he’s known Davis his whole life—her first husband is even a distant cousin of his—but said he and Davis became close after she helped him with paperwork at the Rowan County clerk’s office after his mother died. While he said Davis wasn’t someone he “would get lunch with,” she would give him advice. Black even had her home phone number.
But, he added, now he hardly recognizes her. “I was friends with Kim in the past, but I don’t know this woman I’ve been seeing,” he said. “I somewhat feel like she is taking this to an extreme, because she didn’t become a Christian until four years ago.”
Most importantly, Black wants the world to know that his community is far from the “backwater” Davis’s story implies it to be, as the “Beast” goes on to explain:
“Kim Davis has become the face of Morehead, and that’s not the face we want to portray,” he said.
Morehead is one of the most progressive college towns in Kentucky, Black proudly said. In 2013, its city council unanimously passed an LGBT non-discrimination ordinance, only the sixth city in Kentucky to do so. With its arts scene, students, and coffee shops, Black said many LGBT Kentuckians choose to make it their home.
“This is kind of like a sanctuary for people who came to [Morehead State University]. They live here now, they’ve made it their home because it’s so progressive,” he said. “And now it’s like, what is this place we live in? This is not the home we know. We don’t feel safe now. That’s ultimately what she did. She made us feel like our home was invaded by strangers, and she made us strangers to it.”
As for his friendship with Davis, Black says if she came to him for support he’d be there for her like she was for him. “Morehead is like a big family, a big community,” he said. “She wouldn’t be on his wedding guest list, though,” the Daily Beast reports. “He’d keep it small, to close friends, and ones who support same-sex marriage wholeheartedly.”
