Paul defends clerk, sees ‘more resistance’ ahead to gay marriage

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says a Kentucky clerk’s refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses is just the opening salvo in the fight.

“The people who are promoting this change in the definition of marriage, as they become more aggressive, there is going to be more resistance,” Paul said on “CBS This Morning.”

“If people want to change things, push too hard, they’re actually going to make things worse,” added Paul, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate.

{mosads}“Ultimately, if society is going to change its opinion on what marriage is, I think it would be better through persuasion than through an aggressive tactic where we federalize everything and force people to do things they don’t want to do,” he continued. “We should let people make their own decisions.”

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is currently under fire for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the practice earlier this summer.

Davis says same-sex marriage violates her religious beliefs.

She is due in court on Thursday morning following a judge’s order to stand down.

Paul argued on Thursday that Kentucky does not face an either-or outcome in dealing with Davis’s case.

“I don’t think we have to always have two choices or it has to be a binary option,” he said. “I think you could make it such that notaries notarize contracts. Why can’t you just have a notary doing it?

“Ultimately, I think we can find a way around this,” he added. “The clerk has said she will file contracts as she files any other contract. She just doesn’t want to be forced to participate in something she has a religious objection to.”

The Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges last June legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Critics say the decision violates religious liberty by forcing citizens into recognizing a practice that is sometimes against their personal faith.