As noted in last week’s Darts & Laurels, a Kentucky clerk has been jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She appealed her case all the way to the Supreme Court — who ruled this summer that marriage is a right to be enjoyed by all — and was denied an appeal. Despite being effectively ordered to do so by the highest authority of law in the U.S., she still refused to issue licenses.
I do not mean to spend a lot of time on her personal marriage history, as many others have, because what matters is the harsh discrimination, which she is attempting to implement through what she determines to be her religious liberties. The problem with this is she is a public servant. She does not work for a religious organization, but rather the U.S. government, and it is easy to see why the law saw it fit to send her to prison for acting in contempt of court.
Unfortunately, the jailing of Davis has sparked a martyr effect in certain Republican circles. Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Davis’ actions were warranted and he would do the same if he were in the same situation. Davis’ lawyer compared her imprisonment to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Kim Davis is the latest in a string of anti-LGBTQ+ movements that have masqueraded as expressions of religious liberty in this country. Before the monumental Supreme Court decision that guaranteed marriage equality nationwide, many state governments had begun passing “religious-liberty” legislation.
Supporters of this kind of legislation say it must be passed to protect the freedoms of the religious in this country. Although this seems like a noble effort, when you look at the legislation, it is not extending religious liberty, but instead enabling individuals to suppress basic rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Portions of these laws include protecting businesses that do not want to serve people who identify as heterosexual. The now-classic example is the “Christian” baker who opted not to bake a cake for the marriage of a same-sex couple.
The problem is the defense of the “Christian” baker would not hold up in court. Refusing to serve people based on their sexual orientations is the same as refusing people services due to their race, sex, or ironically enough, their religion. It is discrimination in every sense of the word.
The LGBTQ+ community experiences discrimination in many spheres of society. In many states, it is perfectly legal for employers to fire employees simply due to their sexual orientations.
Once more, the GOP has managed to skew the law to fit its personal ideologies. The very party that constantly espouses following the Constitution to the letter does not want to acknowledge the fact that these laws are unconstitutional. It is an attempt to “protect” the religious majority from a crisis that is nonexistent. Republicans’ cries of persecution are over others they dislike gaining the same rights as them.
Despite the large amount of progress we have made as a country, there is still a lot of work to be done. Members of the LGBTQ+ community face discrimination — simply because of who they are — from people who refuse to treat them as equals. That is not what America ought to be about. We are a country where many have fought for the right to be treated with the same level of dignity. Although that has not always been the case, it is one of the most admirable ideals that can be seen within our founding documents. The “controversy” over extending the right of marriage to LGBTQ+ individuals is just as silly as the people claiming it violates their right to observe their religion.
Kevin Foster is a UF political science senior. His column appears on Thursdays.
