Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

World

Op-Ed: Homophobic clerk Kim Davis not eligible for GoFundMe Campaign

Plaintiffs in the case implored District Court Judge David Bunning to fine Davis, instead of sending her to jail. Bunning, however, said fines wouldn’t work because others might raise money to pay the fine on her behalf, Complex.com notes.

Salon notes that GoFundMe nixed a fundraising campaign by Melissa and Aaron Klein for their Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, which was fined $135,000 for refusing to complete a request for a wedding cake for a gay couple earlier this year. So GoFundMe issued a statement:

“After careful review by our team, we have found the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal. The subjects of the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled.”

Later, the company changed its policy, explicitly stating that “GoFundMe will not allow campaigns that benefit individuals or groups facing formal charges or claims of serious violations of the law.” Kudos to GoFundMe for doing that and tough toodles to Kim Davis.

This was an especially good move for GoFundMe. The company had been flooded with religious conservatives eager to line the pockets of those they deemed on their side of the “culture war,” Jameson Parker, writing for Addicting Info notes. This included officers who killed unarmed black teenagers, Tea Partiers who fell ill after refusing to sign up for Obamacare, and a string of bakeries that, just like the one I mentioned above, want to discriminate against gay couples.

These causes were shameful and disgusting.

And here’s the thing: Kim Davis isn’t being punished for her beliefs. Not even close. She was found in contempt of court because she refused to abide by a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, Salon notes here. She’s in the slammer because she’s refused to do the taxpayer-funded job that the citizens of Rowan County elected her to do.

I’m sorry Kimmy-Poo, but you took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and that means you don’t get to pick and choose which citizens to serve.

To be sure, there’s been plenty of Christian hand-wringing, especially from Mike Huckabee, who compared her to Abraham Lincoln, ThinkProgress reports. I know Huckabee is a few pine cones short of a tree, but what?

He lamented that Davis was found in contempt of court and taken into custody on MSNBC last Thursday and whined that the decision was a “criminalization of Christianity.” This, he said, was just like Abraham Lincoln, who disagreed with the Supreme Court’s horrible 1857 Dred Scott decision which held that African Americans weren’t full citizens.

“Look, you would have hated Lincoln, because he disregarded the Dred Scott 1857 decision that said black people aren’t fully human,” he told host Joe Scarborough. “[Lincoln] disregarded [Dred Scott] because he knew it was not operative, that it was not logical.”

Huckabee tried to connect the dots but he failed miserably.

Lincoln disagreed with a racist decision by the Supreme Court, Kim Davis is promoting homophobia by refusing to do the job she was hired to do.

I’m not saying that Christians don’t have a right to have an opinion about things, but when they are hired to perform a service that’s funded by taxpayers, either do it or resign and leave the opinion at home.

GoFundMe has done the right thing in stopping the flood of hate that seems to spout from so many right-wing Christians. May this hate someday come to an end.

Written By

You may also like:

Social Media

Wanna buy some ignorance? You’re in luck.

Tech & Science

Under new legislation that passed the House of Representatives last week, TikTok could be banned in the United States.

Life

Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest often suggest travel destinations based on your likes and viewing habits.

Social Media

From vampires and wendigos to killer asteroids, TikTok users are pumping out outlandish end-of-the-world conspiracy theories.