A gay couple that is owed more than $560,000 in damages and legal costs after being denied a marriage license by former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has filed a new lawsuit alleging that she transferred inherited property to family members to avoid paying the judgment.
David Ermold and David Moore were turned away by Davis’s office when they attempted to obtain a marriage license in 2015. In 2023, a federal jury found that Davis had violated their constitutional rights and awarded them $100,000 in damages.
Davis claimed that her religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage prevented her from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She served six days in jail for contempt of court after refusing to allow her deputies to issue licenses to any couples, gay or straight, because they would have included her name and title. Kentucky lawmakers later changed state law to remove county clerks’ names from marriage licenses.
Following the jury’s verdict, a federal judge ordered Davis to pay the couple an additional $260,000 to cover the legal costs they incurred in suing her.
Ermold and Moore claim that the amount Davis owes for their legal costs has since grown to more than $465,000 due to interest and additional fees incurred as she continued appealing the case. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case last November.
Michael Gartland, an attorney for Ermold and Moore, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that his clients haven’t received “a penny” of what Davis owes them. In sworn responses submitted to Gartland and co-counsel Joseph Buckles in December and January, Davis claimed that she did not own or have an interest in any property and was not the beneficiary of a trust.
But Gartland and Buckles say they have uncovered deeds in probate court and Rowan County land records showing that Davis and her brother inherited about $735,000 in real estate following their mother’s death in January 2025.
In their lawsuit, the attorneys claim that Davis and her brother were appointed co-administrators of the estate a month later. On April 8, 2025 — exactly 33 days after the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s ruling against Davis — her brother executed an affidavit of descent formally identifying them as equal heirs.
That same day, Davis and her brother, Darold Rayburn Bailey Jr., transferred a home in Morehead, Ky., from their mother’s estate to Bailey, his wife, and Davis’s husband, Joe Davis. A month later, Davis and her brother transferred a 50-acre farm and a separate three-bedroom home to a trust benefiting her husband and son.
The properties were transferred for “the love and affection which the parties have for each other … and for no monetary consideration whatsoever,” according to the deeds. Gartland and Buckles argue that the properties had a combined fair cash value of more than $400,000, half of which belonged to Davis.
They also allege in the lawsuit that Davis transferred the inherited property to family members to conceal her assets and avoid paying the court judgment, and that she deliberately misrepresented her finances.
Under Kentucky law, a court may void a property transfer intended to “hinder, delay, or defraud any creditor of the debtor.” A transfer may also be voided if the debtor did not receive “reasonably equivalent value” and was left with “unreasonably small” assets or debts beyond their ability to pay.
Gartland argues that Davis meets both standards for reversing the transfers by allegedly concealing her inheritance during post-judgment discovery and transferring her mother’s property for “no monetary consideration.” The lawsuit asks the court to void the transfers, require an accounting of the estate’s assets so the federal court can place liens on the properties, and block further transfers until the suit is resolved.
Matthew Staver, founder and chairman of the right-wing legal organization Liberty Counsel, which previously represented Davis, denied that she lied about her assets. He told the Herald-Leader that the transfers carried out her mother’s final wishes. However, the newspaper reported that those wishes were not reflected in her mother’s will or other probate court documents.
Staver said Davis truthfully answered questions from Ermold and Moore’s attorneys and provided documents reflecting her financial situation in December 2025 and January 2026.
Gartland told Lexington-based CBS affiliate WKYT that he expects the court to reverse the property transfers, calling the case a “slam dunk” for his clients. He said placing liens on the three properties would help compensate Ermold and Moore for their damages and legal costs.
Ermold and Moore are tired of a legal battle that has dragged on for more than a decade and want to collect the money they are owed and close this chapter of their lives, Gartland told the Herald-Leader.
“They’re not out for vengeance, but, I mean, they have been seriously harmed by this,” Gartland said. “Additionally, you know, there’s substantial attorney’s fees, and they’ve gone through a lot pursuing this case.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, recently criticized an Indianapolis high school classroom displaying rainbow-colored banners and signs supporting LGBTQ rights, women's rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
On July 21, Rokita shared two photos of flags and decorations displayed inside a classroom at Perry Meridian High School. One photo shows a string of international flags hanging above a bulletin board with three larger banners, two of them rainbow-colored. One reads "Love Wins," while another states "Science is real. Black lives matter. No human is illegal, Love is love. Women's rights are human rights. Kindness is everything." The third depicts a raised fist in rainbow colors.
Niger's military junta has enacted a new penal code criminalizing homosexuality.
The West African nation is the latest African country to criminalize homosexuality, just months after Senegal doubled the penalty for consensual same-sex relations.
The new penal code, which took effect on June 11, punishes anyone who "commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) acts" with five to 10 years in prison and a fine. How authorities would determine what constitutes an "asexual act" remains unclear.
The York Revolution forfeited its scheduled Pride Night game on June 18 after a majority of players refused to wear Pride-themed uniforms.
The minor league baseball team had been scheduled to host the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs as part of its 11th annual Pride Night celebration, during which players were expected to wear jerseys with rainbow sleeves.
But York Revolution President and General Manager Ben Shipley told NBC News that fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster -- the minimum needed to field a team -- were willing to wear the rainbow uniforms. The refusal led to a team meeting, during which Shipley was unable to persuade the objecting players to wear the rainbow-adorned jerseys.
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