Dan Savage: Kentucky clerk defying Supreme Court on gay marriage is 'waiting to cash in'

Dan Savage weighs in on Kentucky clerk who won&#039;t issue same-sex marriage licenses — (Image credit: MSNBC)

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

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.