On Tuesday, Kim Davis, the county clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, continued to refuse to issue same-sex (or opposite-sex) marriage licenses, despite losing at the U.S. Supreme Court, citing "God's authority." On Tuesday night's Last Word, host Alex Wagner asked columnist and gay-rights advocate Dan Savage if he thinks Davis is trying to become a "martyr."
"I think Kim Davis is waiting to cash in," Savage replied. She will probably lose her job and maybe spend a small amount of time in jail, he said, "and then she will have written for her a ghostwritten book, she will go on the right-wing lecture circuit, and she'll never have to do an honest day's work ever again in her life. This is about somebody hypocritically cashing in." Why "hypocritically"? Savage notes that Davis is justifying her refusal to do her job by arguing it violates "a central teaching of scripture, and of Jesus himself, regarding marriage," when Davis herself has been married four times. You can watch Savage's argument, and some thoughts on the split this is causing in the Republican Party, below. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
-
Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba have a rough day in defamation courtSpeed Read Trump's audible grousing as E. Jean Carroll testified earned him a warning he could be thrown out of court, and Habba showed she 'doesn't know what the hell she's doing'
