Christian conservative Mat Staver on
Thursday blamed Kentucky's former Democratic governor for the state's
more than $200,000 legal bill over a county clerk's refusal to issue
marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Last month, a federal judge ordered
Kentucky to pay the legal fees of lawyers representing couples denied
a marriage license by Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, who ordered her
office to stop issuing marriage licenses after the Supreme Court in
2015 ruled that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.
(Related: Kentucky
ordered to pay for clerk Kim Davis' fight against gay marriage.)
Davis was represented in her legal
fight by Liberty Counsel, a group vocally opposed to LGBT rights.
On Thursday's Faith and Freedom
radio broadcast, Liberty Counsel's Staver claimed that former
Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, was at fault, because he refused
to issue an executive order exempting Davis from issuing marriage
licenses to same-sex couples.
“If, at the end of the day, the state
of Kentucky has to pay for attorney’s fees, whose responsibility is
that? It’s not Kim Davis. It’s not Rowan Country. It’s not the
current legislative body … It’s certainly not Gov. Matt Bevin,”
Staver
told his listeners.
“It is the former liberal Democratic
Gov. Beshear. Had he [provided a religious liberty accommodation to
Davis,] this case never would have gone anywhere. Had he done that,
Kim Davis never would have spent any time in jail. Had he done that,
the ACLU never would have had a case.”
“Because he was so ideologically
blinded with the same-sex marriage agenda and he wanted to force Kim
Davis down this path, he would not lift a finger to give a religious
liberty accommodation. At the end of the day, worst case scenario, if
the commonwealth is ultimately responsible for these fees, it lies at
the feet and is the responsibility of the former liberal Gov. Steve
Beshear,” he added.
It should be noted that Beshear
instructed Davis to issue the marriage licenses.