Conservative Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, gave his ticket to Tuesday’s State of the Union Address to Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who became a lightning rod last year for refusing to grant marriage licenses to gay couples.
Jordan’s move sparked controversy just hours before President Obama was set to deliver his final State of the Union, an event filled with pomp and ceremony. It also promised to create some awkward optics for the evening, because Obama invited Jim Obergefell to sit in first lady Michelle Obama’s box on Tuesday night.
Obergefell is the named plaintiff in last summer’s landmark case that legalized same-sex marriage, Obergefell v. Hodges. That case has transformed the Cincinnati resident into a gay-rights activist and political star.
A spokesman for Jordan portrayed the congressman’s decision as a courtesy to someone in need of a ticket — not as a political statement.
“Kim Davis used our ticket,” said Jordan spokesman Darin Miller. “Our staff heard from theFamily Research Council that Ms. Davis and her family hoped to attend the State of the Union address and so we offered a ticket.”
Davis grabbed the national spotlight last summer when she refused to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage. She spent five nights in jail and became a hero to many conservatives, just as Obergefell became an icon to gay-rights advocates.
Davis’ lawyers initially declined to say who invited her to the State of the Union, according to CNN. “Kim will be in the gallery tonight as a counterweight to the president’s message. She is representing many Americans who have been adversely affected by the president’s policies, specifically this administration’s trampling of religious liberty,” Charla Bansley of the Liberty Counsel, the group representing Davis, told CNN.
The Family Research Council, a conservative group that opposes same-sex marriage, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its role in securing her a ticket from Jordan’s office. Obergefell also did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment Tuesday.
In October, though, Obergefell took on Davis in a fundraising email for the American Civil Liberties Union.
“You’re imposing the same indignities on couples in Rowan County that John and I suffered when Ohio would not legally recognize us as a married couple,” Obergefell wrote in the email, referring to his lifelong partner John Arthur. “Thankfully, the law is now changed so that nobody should ever have to experience the injustice that John and I endured. No one is above the law, Kim, not even you.”
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