The case of the jailed country clerk…

Anyone following the news must have at least some knowledge of Kim Davis, Country Clerk for Rowan Country, Kentucky, who refused to give out marriage certificates (any marriage certificates) because of what she described as her deep religious beliefs being in disagreement with the now legally settled issue of same sex marriages.  So, rather than give gay people marriage certificates, she would not give anyone marriage certificates.

She (or rather her attorneys) took the case to court(s) and were defeated at every turn.  Her last chance was to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in and, when they refused, it essentially ended whatever legal recourse she had left.

Despite this she continued to refuse issuing marriage certificates and last Thursday was brought before a judge for consideration of being held in contempt of court.  She was indeed found to be in contempt and, somewhat surprisingly, the judge sent her to jail…

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/politics/kentucky-clerk-same-sex-marriage-kim-davis/index.html

I say “somewhat” surprisingly because although this was certainly one of the judge’s options, the defendants asked she be fined until she complied.  The judge, however, viewed her continued flaunting of law as more serious and therefore took the more punitive measure.  Plus, some speculated, the judge was aware that anti-gay marriage groups might collect money to pay whatever fines he might issue against Ms. Davis, therefore rendering that form of punishment null.

Predictably, there are many on the conservative side of the coin -and even presidential candidates!- who reacted negatively to the whole affair…

Twitter Conservatives Lose It After Kim Davis is Jailed

What to make of all this?

I suspect in the long run people like Ms. Davis are a dying breed.  Societies and their mores inevitably march on, and things that were not allowed/forbidden/illegal years before can be scrubbed away and society isn’t necessarily the worse for it.

There was a time, after all, when it was illegal to sell and consume alcohol.  This was the law of the land!  The law was, of course, repealed and I highly doubt we’re ever going to see any such law reappear ever again.  Quite the contrary, it now appears we’re starting to loosen laws dealing with illegal drug use.

What is also clear is that with regard to Gay Marriage there has been a shift in tolerance and acceptance and that has, somewhat predictably in some parts, led to a blowback among those with more conservative leanings.

This explains someone like Ms. Davis.  But given the fact that the country hasn’t descended into Mad-Max-ian anarchy since the Supreme Court formally allowed Gay Marriage, I think its safe to say the majority of people in this country have little to no big issue with this ruling.

A vocal minority, therefore, is left to cling to the pre-Gay Marriage ruling and try to fight to somehow retain the previous status-quo.

It has been pointed out that Ms. Davis is hardly a great example of squeaky-clean Americana given her past marital history and there is more than a wiff of hypocrisy to her stand against Gay Marriage.  While interesting fodder, it is irrelevant to the bigger issue.

The bigger issue, to me, is that the fight is over.

Ms. Davis and the conservative foundation lawyers who I strongly suspect are the real “brains” behind her stand are like Hiro Onoda, the Japanese soldier who, along with a trio of companions, hid for years and continued fighting a war they would not accept ended in 1945.

Unlike abortion, which still divides this country, I suspect the issue of Gay Marriage will eventually become an afterthought.  It’ll be one of those things that when people are asked about they will shrug and wonder why there was so much fighting about it in the first place.

As with so many other things…we’ll see!