MOREHEAD, Ky. -- A jailed Kentucky clerk asserts that the marriage licenses issued Friday to gay couples in Rowan County are void because she didn't authorize them, her attorney said while promising to appeal the contempt order that put clerk Kim Davis behind bars.

Even as attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel said the licenses are "not worth paper that they are written on," at least gay couples were embracing after receiving marriage licenses Friday.

The vast majority of officials across the U.S. have agreed to issue licenses since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in June. But Davis had turned away couples again and again in defiance of a series of federal court orders, citing her religious beliefs.

Staver met with Davis in jail on Friday and said she is in very good spirits. He didn't know how long she will be jailed, but he said she has no intention of resigning and she will not violate her conscience.

William Smith Jr. and James Yates, a couple for nearly a decade, were the first to receive a marriage license in Rowan County. Deputy clerk Brian Mason issued the license, congratulating the couple and shaking their hands, smiling. Yates then rushed to hug his mom as both cried.

"This means, at least for this area, that civil rights are civil rights and they are not subject to belief," said Yates, who had been denied a license five times previously.

The licenses were issued only after five of Kim Davis' deputy clerks agreed to hand them out, the lone holdout being her son, Nathan Davis.

The marriage licenses in the county usually have Davis' signature on them, but the ones handed out Friday did not have any signature. The county attorney and lawyers for the gay couples said they are legal and valid despite the lack of a signature.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Davis' husband, Joe Davis, held a sign saying "Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah."

A judge has indicated Kim Davis would remain in jail at least a week.

Davis said she hopes the Legislature will change Kentucky laws to find some way for her to keep her job while following her conscience. But state lawmakers will not meet until January.

Davis, an Apostolic Christian, wept during her testimony in federal court Thursday, telling the judge she was "always a good person" but that "God's moral law conflicts with my job duties."

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Associated Press writer Claire Galofaro in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.