Kim Davis’ Lawyer Was Caught Lying About Claims That 100K Peruvians Held A Rally In Her Support
Kim Davis, the embattled Kentucky county clerk who was briefly jailed for refusing to authorize same-sex marriage licenses, recently got awarded a “Cost of Disciple Award” by the Family Research Council at this year’s Values Voter Summit. During the award ceremony, Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver praised Kim Davis for her courage and later claimed that around 100,000 people in Peru gathered for a prayer rally in her honor.
A day prior to the event, former Liberty Counsel member Matt Barber tweeted a photo (image below) claiming that the prayer rally was organized in support of Davis. The photo’s caption went: “Christians in Peru had a prayer rally for #KimDavis & American Christians. over 100K showed up. Amazing! #ImWithKim”
On Sunday, Barber tweeted the photo again, this time claiming that Peruvian Congressman Julio Rosas organized the prayer rally for Kim Davis. The caption went: “Cong. @juliorosas1 called a prayer rally for #KimDavis & U.S. Christians in Peru. 100K showed up. Amazing! #VVS15”
Think Progress would later reveal that these claims were false. Apparently, many Twitter users posted photos, videos, and supporting online documents proving that the prayer rally showed in the aforementioned image had nothing to do with Kim Davis. In a series of tweets, Twitter user (@DCHomos) identified on Sunday the stadium in the controversial photo as the Estadio Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos at the National University of San Marcos. According to the tweets, the image shared by Barber was taken at a prayer rally held in May last year and was named “Jesús Te Ama Y Te Cambia” (“Jesus Loves You And Changes You). The tweet caption states, “I’m pretty sure this is the event, last May in Estadio San Marcos, Lima Peru. NOT a Kim Davis Rally.”
I'm pretty sure this is the event, last May in Estadio San Marcos, Lima Peru. NOT a Kim Davis Rally pic.twitter.com/TeBOXPkKZe
— @DCHomos (@DCHomos) September 26, 2015
A number of videos has been shared across social media to show further proof that the prayer gathering in question wasn’t held in honor of Kim Davis. One such video (shown below) shows a prayer gathering posted back in May 2014. In watching the video, one can easily notice the same water towers and banners seen in the photo shared by Barber. Based on the video’s date stamp, the video was posted a year before Kim Davis became the focus of national controversy.
In direct response to the falsity accusations, the Liberty Counsel issued on Monday a press release to defend the legitimacy of the photo, insisting that Congressman Rosas did organize the prayer rally in support of Davis and that the prayer gathering did take place on September 13. The group wasn’t able to provide any proof to back up its claims.
While there are right wing groups and organizations that continue to hold Kim Davis up as a martyr, most Americans share the opinion that the Kentucky county clerk should have been sent to jail, as previously reported by the Huffington Post. Many believe that by refusing to authorize marriage licenses for same-sex couples, Kim Davis directly violated the First Amendment.
Recently, George Takei, a 78-year-old actor and LGBT activist, criticized Kim Davis and her anti-gay supporters via an op-ed published in The Daily Beast.
“Everyone’s perfectly free to worship as they please, but this freedom also includes not having other people’s beliefs interfere with our own participation in civil society.”
[Image courtesy of Matt Barber/Twitter]
