The Rowan County, Kentucky courthouse began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Thursday, Sept. 4, after a federal judge order jailed its county clerk for contempt of court for refusing to issue them on personal moral grounds.
According to a Sept. 5 New York Times article:
Deputy clerks at the county clerk’s office … issued a marriage license to same-sex couple on Friday, a day after their boss was jailed for refusing to do so.
Trailed by supporters and the news media, a couple, James Yates and William Smith Jr., entered the Rowan County clerk’s office and received a marriage license, ending a standoff that has captured the attention of a country still coming to grips with a Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
On Thursday, the county clerk, Kim Davis, who has become a symbol of religious opposition to same-sex marriage, was jailed for contempt of court after defying a federal court order to issue licenses to gay couples. She later rejected a proposal to allow her deputies to grant the licenses, which could have led to her release.
After one of Ms. Davis’s lawyers told a federal court on Thursday that she would not retreat from her stand, Judge David L. Bunning secured commitments from five of Ms. Davis’s deputies to begin providing the licenses.
