Kentucky Clerk Jailed For Defying Gay Unions

A Kentucky county clerk has been sent to jail for refusing to grant marriage licences in protest at the US Supreme Court's legalisation of gay nuptials.

Kim Davis, 49, was held in contempt of court as she appeared with her entire staff of deputies at the hearing.

US District Court Judge David Bunning told her she would be locked up until she complied with his order to issue the licences.

The Rowan county clerk said "thank you" before she was led out of the courtroom by a US marshal. She was not handcuffed.

Davis, who cites her religious faith in refusing to comply, said: "My conscience will not allow it."

"God's moral law convicts me and conflicts with my duties."

But Judge Bunning said that was no justification.

"Her good-faith belief is simply not a viable defence," he said, reports the Courier-Journal. "Oaths mean things."

He warned the deputy clerks they could also go to jail if they don't issue marriage licences in Davis' absence.

"If you give people opportunity to choose what orders they follow," he said, "that is what potentially causes problems."

Davis has refused to issue licences to any couples - gay or straight - since the nation's highest court in June legalised same-sex nuptials in all 50 states.

Lawyers for four couples whom she refused to grant marriage licences had urged the judge "to impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous to compel Davis' immediate compliance without further delay".

Hundreds of protesters filled the street in front of the federal courthouse in Ashland, Kentucky, including gay marriage supporters shouting: "Love won! Love won!"

Several preachers with loudspeakers called them sinners, while a small plane flew overhead carrying a banner that read: "Stand Firm Kim."

The clerk, who until recently toiled in obscurity recording liens and titling vehicles in rural eastern Kentucky, has become a social conservative rock star.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has hailed her protest as a fight against tyranny.

The $80,000-a-year county employee has received bouquets of flowers from fans, but says she has also had death threats.

Critics have accused Davis of selectively following the Bible after it emerged she has been married four times, twice to the same man.

The mother of four reportedly also had twins out of wedlock.

She is receiving free legal counsel from the Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian nonprofit.