Judge demands that Kentucky pay the legal fees for the couples who were denied marriage licenses by county clerk Kim Davis.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

Two years after Kim Davis first made national headlines, her anti-marriage equality case is closed, at least for now ― but it will come at a cost to local taxpayers. 

Davis, who is the county clerk for Kentucky’s Rowan County, steadfastly refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on marriage equality, citing her religious beliefs. Though Davis was briefly jailed for contempt of court, she went on to become the darling of right-wing conservatives, including former Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee. 

On Friday, a federal judge awarded $222,695 in legal fees to the attorneys of four couples ― two same-sex, two opposite-sex ― who were denied marriage licenses by Davis. (The clerk briefly refused to issue licenses to all couples in 2015 as her legal troubles began to mount.) However, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered the state, as opposed to Davis herself, to pay the fees. 

His reasoning was simple. “Davis represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky when she refused to issue marriage licenses to legally eligible couples,” he said, according to The New York Times. “The buck stops there.”

Well that's awesome.

And it certainly sends a strong message any other religious wing nuts who feel their personal prejudices are more important than the rights of American citizens.

You know I was just thinking how long it has been since we have heard anything about this Kentucky Fried Lunatic.

Here's hoping this is the final time we ever do.

Christian pediatrician refuses to accept infant as patient because parents are lesbians.

Krista and Jami Contreras, and their baby.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

A lesbian couple in Michigan says a pediatrician has refused to care for their infant because of their sexual orientation. 

Krista and Jami Contreras said Dr. Vesna Roi of Eastlake Pediatrics in Roseville, Michigan, had initially agreed to be the pediatrician to their daughter, Bay. But after "much prayer," Roi had a change of heart. 

When the couple brought their 6-day-old baby into the office for a wellness check-up, another doctor told them that Roi would not be seeing them after all, according to the Detroit Free Press. 

"I was completely dumbfounded," Krista, who is the baby's biological mother, told the newspaper. "We just looked at each other and said, 'Did we hear that correctly?'"

The other doctor did offer the couple his services so apparently there are still some doctors who understand what the Hippocratic Oath is all about.

Doctor Roi, by the way, also offered a rather lame explanation for her behavior.

Apparently it was God's fault: 

"After much prayer following your prenatal, I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient doctor relationship that I normally do with my patients," wrote Roi, who has an average of three out of five stars at Healthgrades and four out of five on Vitals based on limited reviews. 

Roi apologized for not telling them in person, and said they were welcome in the clinic, but that Bay would have to be seen by the other doctor at the practice. 

"Please know that I believe that God gives us free choice and I would never judge anyone based on what they do with that free choice," Roi wrote. "Again, I am sorry for the hurt and angry feelings that were created by this. I hope you can accept my apology."

So to be clear the doctor prayed about it, received some sort of clarity, and then refused to take this infant on as a patient.

Sounds like she believes God told her to reject this child to me.

Wow, and here I thought that the Christian god was all about love and acceptance. 

Woman battles town over benefits for same sex couples and wins. Family church celebrates by kicking them all out.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

After 60 years of attending a Tennessee church, a family in Collegedale has been exiled because they supported their daughter while she fought for same sex benefits from the town where she worked as a police detective. 

Earlier this month, Collegedale became the first city in Tennessee to offer same sex benefits after Detective Kat Cooper was initially denied health benefits for her wife, Krista. The couple was married in Maryland earlier this year. 

But that victory turned out to be bittersweet because leaders at Ridgedale Church of Christ gave Kat Cooper’s mother, aunt and uncle an ultimatum during a private meeting after worship services on Sunday. 

“They could repent for their sins and ask forgiveness in front of the congregation. Or leave the church,” The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on Wednesday. 

“My mother was up here and she sat beside me. That’s it,” Kat Cooper explained to reporter Kevin Hardy. “Literally, they’re exiling members for unconditionally loving their children — and even extended family members.” 

Ridgedale Church of Christ Pastor Ken Willis said that something had to be done because the family was publicly endorsing homosexuality by supporting their daughter. 

“The sin would be endorsing that lifestyle,” Willis insisted. “The Bible speaks very plainly about that.”

For sixty years they attended this church, and were part of this community, only to learn that they are only acceptable to it if they abandon their daughter.

I don't even have anything smart ass to say here. I am almost too angry for words.

All I can say is that I will NEVER understand religion, or why people feel the need to let it tell them who, and how to love, and what, and how to think.

Judge disapproves of lesbian relationship so he will not allow mother to have her children unless she evicts partner. That is justice Texas style.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Republican Texas Judge has ordered a lesbian couple to live apart or give up custody of their children. According to Think Progress, Judge John Roach of McKinney, Texas has given Page Price 30 days to move out of the home she shares with Carolyn Compton and Compton’s two children from a previous marriage because he does not approve of Compton and Price’s “lifestyle.” 

Roach has placed a “morality clause” in Compton’s divorce papers, which forbids Compton from having anyone she is not related to “by blood or marriage” in her home past 9:00 p.m. if the children are present. Same sex marriage is illegal in Texas, so by law, Compton cannot live with Price if she wishes to retain custody of her children. 

Compton said that she and Price have been together for three years. Compton’s ex-husband rarely bothers to see the children and was previously arrested on charges of third-degree felony stalking in 2011, charges that he was able to plea down to criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor. 

In a post on Facebook, Price wrote that Roach had inserted the morality clause into the divorce agreement when Compton’s ex-husband Joshua Compton attempted to gain custody of the children in 2011. The judge wrote that he disapproved of the two women’s “lifestyle.” 

“Our children are all happy and well adjusted. By his enforcement, being that we cannot marry in this state, I have been ordered to move out of my home,” Price wrote.

Now do people understand WHY we have to have a federal marriage equality law passed in this country?

Just imagine if this were the case of a mixed race couple because less than fifty years ago it WOULD have been. I am old enough to remember the argument that the "mixing of the races" was also "immoral," and a sin in the eyes of God.

By the way I love how these idiots are always going on about morality, while almost exclusively working from a Christian perspective, as if the idea of a nuclear family had ALWAYS been a Christian tradition.

When in fact it had not.