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Anti-Gay Clerk to Pay Hefty Fine to Couple She Refused to Marry

Kim Davis was a cult hero among homophobes in 2015 after she claimed it was against her religion to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

A federal jury on Wednesday ordered Kim Davis, the homophobic former county clerk in Kentucky who infamously refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, to fork over $100,000 to two men she denied a license to in 2015. Davis garnered national attention after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision mandated that clerks provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples nationwide. Despite repeated orders, Davis refused to issue some licenses—an illegal act she justified by claiming same-sex marriage was against her religious beliefs. Davis was briefly jailed on a contempt of court charge and became a cult hero among American homophobes, who cheered for her outside the Rowan County Jail as she was released. Davis returned to her job as county clerk and ran for re-election as a Republican in 2018, but lost handily to a Democrat. She had stayed largely out of the public eye ever since, aside from fighting against lawsuits from couples who had been denied licenses.