A new Associated Press-Gfk poll shows that fifty-six percent of Americans believe that government officials should put their personal religious beliefs aside when they are doing their jobs and issue same-sex marriage licenses whether they like it or not. This is compared to forty-one percent of people think that the Kim Davises of the country should be granted a religious exemption and be allowed to discriminate freely.

When the Supreme Court ruled in July that same-sex couples were allowed to get married because of the Equal Protection Clause the majority of Americans were in favor of exemptions. Forty-nine percent of people agreed that officials like Davis should be granted them and forty-seven percent did not agree. Republicans accounted for the biggest change; the number of right-wing voters who believe officials should be granted exemptions plummeted from seventy-two percent to fifty-eight percent.

This definitively proves that America has reached a new era of tolerance. It is no longer socially acceptable to openly discriminate against the LGBT community and Americans do not like bigots using God as an excuse. Kim Davis was so blatantly homophobic that even Republicans who originally supported her position could no longer stomach her. Republican candidates may support her, but America certainly doesn’t it. There is no place in this country for people who hide behind their religion and attack others, that goes against the very foundation this country was built upon and we will not stand idly by and allow it to happen.

Thanks, Kim Davis!

The post Bigotry Backfires: Thanks to Kim Davis, Most Americans Now Oppose 'Religious Freedom' Laws appeared first on Occupy Democrats.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has made a national name for herself by continuously refusing to abide by the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling. Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses to all couples in July after the high court ruled that state laws against same-sex marriage were a violation of the Constitution under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. In the days following the ruling, Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses, because of her “Christian” beliefs.

A federal court ordered Davis to issue licenses to same-sex couples and an appeals court upheld their ruling, but the woman continued to refuse. On Friday, her attorneys at the Liberty Counsel, a non-profit Christian law firm, filed a last-ditch appeal to the SCOTUS and asked them to grant her “asylum for her conscience.” Unfortunately for the bigot, Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred the case to the full court and the court rejected to hear her case without comment.

On Tuesday morning David Moore and David Ermold, a gay couple, entered Davis’ office and for the fourth time were refused a marriage license. She told a crowd that she was going to continue to defy the courts “under God’s authority.”

The couple called the American Civil Liberties Union after they were denied and asked them to file a lawsuit asking that Davis be held in contempt of court. If a judge finds her in contempt she can face fines and even jail time.

The very foundation of our country is the separation of church and state. If someone’s beliefs make it impossible for them to carry out their job as an elected official, they do not belong in their position. The Supreme Court has ruled against her twice now — first the marriage equality ruling and now rejecting her plea — they’ve made it clear that bigotry has no place in our government and it is time for her to go, and time for everyone else in this nation to understand that they must follow the rule of law, no matter which irrelevant presidential candidate tells them otherwise.

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