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Back at work ... Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has promised not to stop her deputies from doing their jobs. Picture: AP Photo/Timothy D Easley
THE Kentucky clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples is back at work and has promised not to stop her deputies from doing their jobs.
But Kim Davis has declared the certificates will not be authorised by her and questioned their validity.
“I don’t want to have this conflict. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. And I certainly don’t want to be a whipping post,†Ms Davis said, reading from a handwritten statement outside the courthouse where she works.
“I am no hero. I’m just a person that’s been transformed by the grace of God, who wants to work, be with my family. I just want to serve my neighbours quietly without violating my conscience.â€
Defiant ... Kim Davis reads a statement outside Rowan County Judicial Center in Morehead, Kentucky, surrounded by Rowan County Sheriff's deputies. Picture: AP Photo/Timothy D EasleySource:AP
She added that licences for gay couples “authorises marriage that conflicts with God’s definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman [and] violates my deeply-held religious convictions and conscience. For me, this would be an act of disobedience to my God.â€
The Apostolic Christian stopped issuing licenses after the Supreme Court effectively legalised gay marriage.
US District Judge David Bunning held her in contempt and ordered her to jail.
In her absence, her deputies issued at least seven licences to gay couples and altered the forms to exclude Ms Davis’ name.
The deputy clerk who issued the licences, Brian Mason, said on Monday that will continue to hand out the licences despite his boss’s objections.
Homophobic slurs ... a Kim Davis supporter, Dan Holman of Keokuk, Iowa, protests in front of the Rowan County Courthouse on September 9. Picture: Ty Wright/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
The deputy clerk who issued the licences, Brian Mason, said on Monday that will continue to hand out the licences despite his boss’s objections.
Clash ... same-sex marriage supporters speak with Kim Davis’ fans outside the Carter County Detention Center on September 8. Picture: Ty Wright/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
The governor, the attorney general and the county attorney have said the licences are valid. Only Ms Davis and her lawyers claim otherwise.
Ms Davis, who believes gay marriage is a sin, has become a hero to many conservative Christians after she stopped issuing the licenses.
On Friday, Ms Davis’ lawyers filed an appeal seeking another delay in issuing licences.
In their motion to the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals, her lawyers argued that all the same-sex couples who sued Ms Davis for a licence received one from her deputies while she was in jail for five days.
Therefore, they said, her office should not be required to issue them to any more couples once she returns to work.
Out of jail ... Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, when she was released from prison on September 8. Picture: AP Photo/Timothy D EasleySource:AP
The judge wrote that his mandate to issue licences applied to all couples, not only those who filed suit. But Ms Davis’ lawyers allege that order was issued improperly, and again have asked for a delay.
The tension in Rowan County reached fever pitch last week, as protesters, presidential candidates and news crews from across the county descended on the small town of Morehead.