In the heat of our nationwide marriage equality victory, can LGBT and allied Americans resist a hate group's bait?
The movement to preserve discrimination against gay and lesbian couples in the matter of legal marriage has met its irreversible failure. As the new nationwide reality of marriage equality unfolds, Liberty Counsel -- a Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate group connected to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University -- has found a figure to serve as Ultimate Victim and also as bait for the LGBT-and-allied community.
Kentucky's Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis defied the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Judge David L. Bunning by refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. As a government employee, she violated her oath to serve all the public, and for those repeated violations, she predictably spent five days in jail. Were she truly unable to perform her duties because her of religious beliefs, resigning would have been the principled response.
Davis emerged from Liberty Counsel's likely nationwide search for someone to label a "prisoner of conscience."
I can guess some of their search criteria -- can you?
1. Female. A more sympathetic Victim, especially before a male judge. Also less like to assert herself with Liberty lawyers or to see herself as being used.
2. Rural. Smaller than Caribou, Maine, Davis's home town of Morehead, Kentucky sits in the Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern Kentucky's Appalachian Mountains. Its historical highlight was reportedly an 1880's "war" that was a classic family feud.
3. Educational status as a power differential with her attorneys. Where are the references to Kim Davis's education?
4. Fundamentalist Christian, the stricter the sect, the better. Plain appearance, well-covered.
5. Troubled marriage history (that'll drive opponents wild) and recent born-again status (four years -- nothing like a recent convert).
6. Plenty of shame in background. This makes her more eager for redemption and therefore firmer in defying the law and serving as Liberty's tool. Also invites opponents to be mean as hell and to have a field day with her -- all at Liberty Counsel's behest.
7. Inexperienced on the national stage. Kim Davis's mother held this county clerk job for 37 years, and the daughter assisted for 27 years before getting elected herself. Then the daughter hired her own son to work in the office to set up the third generation. Nepotism is completely legal where Ms. Davis lives. Does this say something about how insular and ingrown her world is?
8. Nearly impossible to fire. Liberty Counsel wants the longest possible run for this Victim. The longer the media firestorm, the more lucrative their fundraising bonanza. The meaner the attacks from LGBT and allied people, the more Liberty can crow about how evil LGBT and allied people are. Every nasty meme means more sympathetic donations for Liberty.
Because Davis is an elected official accountable to voters, she can't be fired from her job. The Kentucky Legislative Research Commission says Davis would have to be removed by the legislature. The Kentucky Constitution requires impeachment by the state's House of Representatives and trial by the state's Senate. The legislature is not in session until next year, and this process would take months even if there WERE the political will to remove her, which there is not.
So she won't disappear -- perfectly serving Liberty's long-term purpose.
I am not interested in demonizing such a person as Kim Davis, but even if I were, I would not want to play into Liberty Counsel's hateful, manipulative hands.
Simply in humanitarian terms, consider the rest of this woman's life after such extended public pillorying. Her life as she knew it is likely over. Her safety -- and that of her loved ones -- will always be a worry. From total obscurity in her sleepy little mountain town, she has become a household name on a polarizing topic, her face everywhere on the Internet.
Liberty Counsel will keep her visible as a target just as long as they possibly can. Do we think she has any idea what Monica-Lewinsky-scale Internet harassment is really like?
LGBT and allied people have a clue about the long-term psychological effects of such harassment. How will her psyche hold together? How will this affect the people she loves most?
Kim Davis is a perfect pick by Liberty Counsel for their own gain. Doubtless her ultimate fate is little concern of theirs. Despite the harm she has knowingly done to a few gay and lesbian couples, there is no way that her endless public punishment will be commensurate to that harm.
Meanwhile, Liberty Counsel lawyers are men of wealth and privilege. Lead attorney Mathew D. Staver lives in a 1.2 million-dollar Florida home, and others likely in affluent gated communities from which they can beat an easy retreat to their comfy second homes, pools and boats. They face no such risks as Kim Davis does.
We LGBT and allied Americans have won the struggle for marriage equality in law. Our hard-fought victory raises questions about who we have become through the pain of our struggle, who we will be now as more equal Americans, and what we will contribute to a more perfect Union.
In the matter of Kim Davis, we now have the law on our side. We also face critical unfinished work to achieve a comprehensive federal law protecting us from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public education, public accommodations, jury service, and access to federal programs. Why allow our attention to be distracted?
Let's leave Ms. Davis in the law's hands and not demean our own souls by taking Liberty's bait. Let's just Leave. Her. Alone.
Instead, let's choose to live inside the joy of what we have won through our sacrifice, love and relentless courage. Let's be proud of what we have contributed to the growing realization of our country's ideals. Let's rejoice in the new world we have made for and with our LGBT young, whose personal stories now hold so much more hope and promise.
That is the real victory, and there's no going back.