A gay Kentucky preacher and his partner were arrested Tuesday after refusing to leave a county clerk's office that denied them a marriage license.
Rev. Maurice "Bojangles" Blanchard and Dominique James attempted to secure the license knowing they would be refused, according to Think Progress. Same-sex marriages and civil unions were outlawed in Kentucky in 2004 by an amendment to the state's constitution.
Officers arrived to arrest the couple when they remained in the Jefferson County clerk's office after it had closed for the day, according to the Kentucky News Network. Metro police charged both men with trespassing.
According to the Courier-Journal, Blanchard told police he had a "spiritual obligation" to stay, and that he had refused an offer from police to be cited and allowed to leave.
"If we don't act, we are accomplices in our own discrimination," Blanchard charged, according to the Courier-Journal. "We have to resist."
Blanchard made history in May, when he was ordained by Louisville's Highland Baptist Church as an openly gay man, reports the Human Right Campaign. He and James were married in the Unitarian Church six years ago, according to Louisville's WFPL News.
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