Supporters will rally Tuesday outside the jail where Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refuses to marry gay couples, sat all weekend.
Her fellow extremist Christians have compared her to Rosa Parks, the black Civil Rights legend who refused to sit at the back of the bus. And they’ve also been targeting the federal judge in the case, baseball Hall of Famer David Bunning, at his home with pickets and chants. “Judge Bunning is in contempt of the Court of Almighty God and the constitutions of both Kentucky and the United States,” t he Rev. Philip “Flip” Benham, an evangelical Christian, said. Among Davis’ staunch supporters is Ron Brock, 77, who The Cincinnati Enquirer says lives in a Toyota pickup and wanders America to protest LGBT rights. “As long as she stays in jail, she has the hearts of America on her side,” Brock declared.
RELATED: Kim Davis has had three husbands. Conservative Republicans have been egging them on and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is planning to attend Tuesday’s pro-Davis rally.
“The purpose of it is to show support for Kim and also to let the world know that it is unacceptable to put a person in jail without bail because she followed her conscience,” the former Arkansas governor, who is tanking in party polls, told Fox News Monday. RELATED: Kim Davis goes to jail. Others, like Congressman Steve King of Iowa, have likened Davis’ defiance to Rosa Park, infuriating many.
“In fact, she’s the opposite ” of Rosa Parks, John Culhane a Delaware Law School professor wrote in Politico.. “While Parks was a private citizen defying what she knew to be the law, Davis is a public official , who is charged with following the law. She’s Rosa Parks’ bus driver, denying a service to the public.” RELATED:Two couples reflect on Gay Marriage ruling. Davis’ lawyers, meanwhile, have filed an appeal to the judge that has tossed her into jail for contempt of court — and want the state’s governor, Steve Beshear, to do something. “We would like them to release her from jail and provide reasonable, sensible accommodation so she can do her job,” attorney Horatio Mihet, said in a statement. “That would be taking her name off of marriage licenses in Rowan County and allowing her deputies to issue the licenses.” Beshear responded that the brawl is a “matter between her and the courts.”
Davis is passing her time in jail, where she has sat since Thursday, reading the Bible, Mihet said.
“Her spirits remain high,” he told CNN. “She was brought to tears when she heard that so many people outside the jail and around the country are praying for her.”
Davis lawyers say that her beliefs that God is against the loving unions of same-sex couples should trump the law of the land. Gay marriage was illegal in Kentucky until the U.S. Supreme Court that government could not define what constitutes a loving union between two adults. The deputies in the Rowan County Clerk’s Office started issuing gay marriage licenses Thursday.
In 1963, we should not have honored SCOTUS decision to creat a wall of separation between prayer & school. Kim Davis for Rosa Parks Award.
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) September 5, 2015
To compare #KimDavis to Rosa Parks is delusional and nonsensical.
— Josh Andrews (@JoshAndrews12) September 6, 2015
You know who’s like Rosa Parks? The gay couple who kept going back to Kim Davis’ office over and over until they got justice. #MLKim
— Devin (@devbost) September 6, 2015
John A. Oswald is editor-at-large at Metro and can be found on Twitter@nyc_oz.
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