Kentucky clerk passes gay marriages on to deputies

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis returned to work on Monday for the first time since being jailed for disobeying a federal judge. She said that she was faced with a "seemingly impossible choice" between following her conscience and losing her freedom over denying marriage licenses to gay couples.

On her first day back in the office after her five-day stint in jail, Davis said she was still torn between obeying God and a directive from the judge that forced her "to disobey God." Davis, an Apostolic Christian, said that she believed gay marriage was a sin.

At a press conference, she said she continued to have objections to issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, but would no longer prevent her deputies from doing so. Davis, a 49-year-old divorcee, said that the licenses would state that they were being issued under a US District Court order.

Call for special provisions

Davis meanwhile called on Kentucky's state government to provide a way for people who disagreed with the gay marriage policy to object without facing risk of prison.

"Are we not a big enough, a loving enough and a tolerant enough state to find a way to accommodate my religious convictions?"

Referring to the state legislature, Davis said: "They have the authorization and the authority to provide these types of accommodations and there's no reason why they cannot do so."

The small town of Morehead appeared to have moved on in the meantime. US District Judge David Bunning, who had ordered Davis to be held on contempt charges, later allowed her release but only after five of Davis' six deputy clerks agreed under oath to issue marriage certificates "to all legally eligible couples" - including homosexual couples. In Davis' absence, her deputies were reported to have issued at least seven licenses to gay couples, altering the forms to exclude Davis' name.

ss/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)