Hate Group Backs Kentucky County Clerk That Opposes LGBT Marriage
The ongoing battle between equal rights under the law and the religious right-wing's desire to discriminate escalated Monday when the anti-gay Liberty Counsel filed a response brief on behalf of Kim Davis, the Kentucky County Clerk who was sued by the ACLU for refusing to issue marriage licenses.
"This case is not about whom a person may marry under Kentucky law. No one is preventing any Plaintiff from marrying whom they want to marry," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman Liberty Counsel. "Same-sex 'marriage' licenses are readily available across Kentucky in over 130 offices, including in counties neighboring Rowan. This case is really about forcing an individual to validate same-sex 'marriages' in violation of her fundamental and unalienable religious liberty and speech rights," Staver continued.
"The plaintiffs in this case only sought licenses from Ms. Davis after learning of her religious objections to same-sex 'marriage,' and they refuse to obtain a license elsewhere," Staver said. "Just as Justice Alito predicted in his dissent in Obergefell, secularists are trying to 'stamp out every vestige of dissent' by targeting people of faith who do not agree with same-sex 'marriage.'"
The Liberty Counsel has been designated an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition to fighting marriage equality and hate crime legislation, they have been active proponents of harmful reparative therapy practices, and run the "Change is Possible" campaign with Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays to protect people who say they've changed from gay to straight from "discrimination" by "intolerant homosexuals."