The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergfell v. Hodges confirmed that no state can deny a marriage license to same sex couples. Freedom had triumphed. Justice Kennedy eloquently stated that, same sex couples, like any other couple, have a right to consecrate their relationship through marriage and that the state cannot stand in the way of their doing so.
Over the past few months, as states have allowed same sex couples to marry, certain government officials and other service providers have claimed that they are entitled to “opt out” of performing services that relate to gay marriage. Most notably Kim Davis, the County Clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky who was imprisoned for her actions.
As County Clerk of the United States, Davis issues marriage certificates to any and all individuals who qualify for marriage. Davis, however, it a frustrated bigot. She abandons her duty as a Clerk and refuses to issue certificates to same sex couples. Not only is this amoral, it is now unconstitutional.
Davis, a born again Christian, claims that by allowing gays to marry violates her religious beliefs that marriage is singularly limited to a man and a woman. She says the First Amendment of the Constitution allows her the religious freedom to refuse marriage certificates to same sex couples. President Obama weighed in on the issue and forcefully argued against Davis’s mis-interpretation of our nation’s First Amendment.
The President stated:
“…we also have to say clearly that our religious freedom doesn’t grant us the freedom to deny our fellow Americans their constitutional rights … And that even as we are respectful and accommodating genuine concerns and interests of religious institutions, we need to reject politicians who are supporting new forms of discrimination as a way to scare up votes. That’s not how we move America forward.”
Same sex marriage is now permitted as a matter of Constitutional right. It is a fact of the modern world. America is adapting to the globalized age that we’ve embarked upon. The people of the world are accepting that love is love and marriage shouldn’t be denied to anyone. Kim Davis is a terror and a paradigm of ignorant hate. And now she’s a criminal, too.