April Miller and Karen
Roberts stood before a minister Saturday night, hand-in-hand, and said the two
words they fought for months to exchange.
The people packed into
the room around them jumped into a standing ovation. They all wore matching
rainbow buttons that read #LoveWins.
The couple, the first
denied a license by Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, celebrated their wedding
Saturday, capping a months-long saga that landed them in the middle of a
national firestorm over religious freedom and civil rights.
They laid out one rule
for their guests: no one was to mention Davis. "This is about us and our
wedding," Roberts said.
When the Supreme Court
effectively legalized same-sex marriage across the nation in June, Davis cited
"God's authority" and stopped issuing marriage licenses. Miller and
Roberts, along with three other couples, filed a lawsuit against her.
Davis continued to
refuse them, again and again, in defiance of a series of federal court orders.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning held her in contempt on Sept. 3 and ordered
her to jail.
Miller and Roberts, a
couple for 11 years caring for a disabled daughter together, got a license the
next day, issued by a deputy clerk who agreed to sign them in Davis' absence.
The couple, who still had to return the license to the clerk's office for
recording, worried about what might happen once Davis got back to work. So they
scrambled together a private wedding, alone at their home, the following
Thursday.
Roberts said it was not
how she imagined her wedding would be. So they held a second ceremony Saturday
in a reception hall at the Pines at Sheltowee in Morehead and invited 125:
friends, family and dozens of people they met just four months ago, on the courthouse
lawn outside Davis' office.
On June 30, the morning
after the clerk announced she would not issue licenses, couples and activists
flocked to the courthouse. They returned day after day, and over time formed
friendships and a grassroots advocacy group they called the Rowan County Rights
Coalition.
Its roster now numbers
in the dozens, with formal committees and elected positions, said Mary Hargis,
a member of the group. They've created an outreach program for transgendered
youth and are starting an initiative to distribute stickers to gay-friendly
local businesses.
They sat in the back of
the room Saturday night, hugging and weeping.
"It's really
affirming to see their love validated," said Michael Aldridge, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, one of those
present. The ACLU had sued Davis on behalf of the couples originally denied
their wedding licenses.
"It's been an
amazing journey and we'd like to thank all the people who stood with us from
June 30 to today," Miller announced Saturday. "This is your party
too."
Though they got what
they wanted, the couple acknowledges their legal battle is far from over. The
lawsuit, titled April Miller et al v. Kim Davis, is likely to drag out for many
months more.
But the couple tried to
turn the conversation away from the Davis and the ongoing legal questions
Saturday night.
They exchanged vows,
promising to love each other in "joy as well as sorrow, triumph as well as
defeat." They kissed and swayed into a slow dance.
Months ago, as the
controversy reached a fever pitch, Miller was driving to work when a Chicago
song came across the radio. "Will you still love me for the rest of my
life," the band sang, and she pulled over her car and wept.
The couple chose that
song for their first dance.
Nashia Fife, a member
of the Rowan County Right Coalition, wiped tears as she watched from the back
of the room.
"It's a really big
reward for all our hard work to culminate in a big, beautiful party," she
said. "It's so wonderful, so long overdue."
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