West Virginia County To Pay Settlement And Apologize After Deputy Clerk Called Gay Couple An “Abomination”

CBS News reports:

A settlement has been announced in a federal lawsuit against Gilmer County. The case Brookover v. Gilmer County was a result of alleged harassment received by a same-sex couple when going to get their marriage license.

According to a news release by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Gilmer County Deputy Clerk Debbie Allen called Amanda Abramovich and Samantha Brookover an “abomination” to God and stated their marriage shouldn’t be legal.

The settlement includes Gilmer County apologizing to Abramovich and Brookover and paying damages to them. It also includes the county issuing a public statement regarding the wrongdoing of the County Clerk’s office. The county has also promised to take steps to ensure their employees do not discriminate against anyone again.

The inset photo above is Allen’s boss, Gilmer County Clerk Jean Butcher, who reportedly shrugged off the couple’s initial complaint, saying she feels the same way.

From my first report on the incident:

The clerks don’t dispute that Allen told the couple was they were doing was wrong, and that they would be judged. But they also stressed that they did not view the statement as an “attack.” “We did not attack them,” Allen said. “We did not yell at them. We were not aggressive with them. I felt I talked nicely to them.”

Brookover and Abramovich say that Allen huffed, took their driver’s licenses, made copies, slammed down the copies, then for two to three minutes, yelled that what they were doing was wrong, in her eyes and in God’s eyes, and that no one in Gilmer County would ever marry them.