Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who went to jail rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has written a book about her experience, describing among other things her encounters with "furious, fist-pounding, homosexual men."
Davis coauthored the book, Under God's Authority: The Kim Davis Story, with John Aman, director of creative services for the anti-LGBT group Liberty Counsel, and Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the group, which represented Davis in her court battles. Proceeds will go to Liberty Counsel, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
Liberty Counsel's press release for the book calls it an "amazing narrative of redemption and courage" that "goes behind the scenes to reveal how God gave this unlikely candidate a platform to defend marriage and religious freedom." It has endorsements from several religious right figures, including onetime presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who wrote the foreword for the book; Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse; and blogger Elizabeth Johnston, a.k.a. "The Activist Mommy."
After the U.S. Supreme Court's marriage equality decision in 2015, Davis shut down marriage license operations in Rowan County rather than serve same-sex couples, saying to do so would violate her Christian beliefs. After several couples sued, a federal judge ordered her to resume issuing marriage licenses, and when she refused, she was jailed for five days for contempt of court. Eventually her deputies began issuing the licenses, with one of them serving same-sex couples. Now the state of Kentucky has changed marriage licenses so that they do not bear the county clerk's name, an accommodation Davis had sought.
Liberty Counsel's online blurb for the book promises, "Kim chronicles her dramatic encounters with furious, fist-pounding, homosexual men and the hate mail that flooded her office." It also implores readers to "discover what God did when one woman refused to compromise her faith and what He will do when you are called to do the same!"
Davis, formerly a Democrat, is running for reelection this year as a Republican. David Ermold, a gay man who was refused a marriage license by Davis, is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge her. Three other candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination as well; the primary will be May 22.