WV Deputy Clerk Serves Same-Sex Couple A Marriage License With A Heaping Side Of Abuse

Debbie Allen, a deputy country clerk for West Virginia's Gilmer County, did her job last week– she granted a same-sex couple a marriage license. Unfortunately, she also heaped a pile of abuse on the newlyweds.

From Charleston Gazette-Mail:

[Samantha] Brookover and her partner, Amanda Abramovich, wanted a marriage license. They got one -- along with an earful from a deputy clerk in the office, who told them that their relationship was wrong and that God would judge them.

Brookover and Abramovich had expected maybe an eye roll, or some sign of disgust. They said they weren’t anticipating they would be told they were “an abomination.”

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This might seem just another case of an extremely unpleasant person working a government job, not a Kim Davis-type situation. After all, the deputy clerk did give the couple their marriage license. However, the article continues, legislation in the West Virginia House of Delegates may soon change that:

She wouldn’t say how she would treat any future same-sex couples that arrive at the clerk’s office or whether she would attempt to use the West Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act, if it passes in the Legislature, to argue she shouldn’t have to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The bill, House Bill 4012, could allow people to argue in court that civil rights laws don’t apply to them because of their religious beliefs. 

Learn more about HB 4012.