MOREHEAD, Ky. (CN) - A county clerk in Kentucky is refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite a federal judge ordering her to do so.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis - an Apostolic Christian - failed to show up for work Thursday morning, and had also stopped issuing marriage licenses to heterosexual couples.
Her absence follows a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David L. Bunning on Wednesday in which he wrote, "Davis remains free to practice her [religious] beliefs ... [but] her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County Clerk."
David Ermold and David Moore arrived at the courthouse in Morehead Thursday morning fully expecting to be married, but were told their only option was to go to a different Kentucky county.
Moore told the New York Times that "telling people to go to another county is like saying, 'We don't want your kind of people here.'"
Deputy Clerk Roberta Early told reporters the matter "is still under litigation, and nothing has changed."
Davis has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples since the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges this past June, even though Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ordered all clerks in the state to abide by the high court's decision.
Davis appears determined to prevent the unions, however, and appealed Bunning's ruling immediately.
According to a Huffington Post article, Davis "argued that issuing a same-sex marriage license that contains her signature is the same as her approving the marriage, which violates her Christian beliefs."
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