Church ponders next step on gay vows
Episcopal bishops in New England and Iowa, the only parts of the nation where same-sex marriage is legal, are preparing for a wave of requests to allow priests to oversee the ceremonies as the result of a decision last week by the Episcopal Church that opens the door to church weddings for gay couples.
In interviews yesterday, none of several bishops interviewed said they were immediately prepared to allow priests to officiate at same-sex weddings, which remain prohibited by the canons of the Episcopal Church.
But, citing the denomination’s decision Friday to allow bishops in states where same-sex marriage is legal to “provide generous pastoral response’’ to same-sex couples, the bishops indicated that they are looking for ways to allow priests to at least celebrate, if not perform, gay nuptials in church.
“The problem is the prayer book says that marriage must conform to the laws of the state and the canons of the church, but if we respond to the laws of the state, we are in violation of the canons of the church,’’ said Bishop Stephen T. Lane of Maine, where the situation is further complicated by a possible referendum to overturn same-sex marriage. “We’re trying to respond pastorally, but not to get so far beyond the bounds of what the church understands that our clergy are just sort of hanging out there.’’
Lane also said bishops of New England, where same-sex marriage has been approved in every state but Rhode Island, are hoping to reach a common plan, because “we don’t want people running back and forth between the New England states.’’
“The folks who would like to be married are members of our congregations and will have a legal right to marriage should the law be upheld,’’ Lane said. “Clergy are caught trying to be faithful both to the canons of the church and the laws of the state, and some flexibility will help us make good pastoral judgments while the church wrestles with the definition of marriage and the rites in the Book of Common Prayer.’’
The Episcopal Church is one of several mainline Protestant denominations grappling with how to respond to increasing societal acceptance of same-sex couples. But the issue is particularly thorny for Episcopalians because the denomination and the global Anglican Communion to which it belongs have been riven by controversy over the 2003 election of an openly gay priest, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.
In an interview yesterday, Robinson said he expects to get married to his longtime partner once same-sex marriage becomes legal in New Hampshire, in January. Robinson said Episcopal priests in New Hampshire have been long been allowed to bless same-sex couples, including those in civil unions, and that he expects to continue to ask priests to bless, but not legally officiate at, same-sex weddings.
“My feeling is that it’s time to separate the civil action from the religious action for all couples, and my guess is that we will continue that practice, which is to say we will ask clergy to get out of the civil marriage business and continue to offer the church’s blessings of civil unions and of same-gender marriages,’’ said Robinson. As a practical matter, that means marriages are solemnized by justices of the peace, who sign the legal documents, and then blessed by clergy.
In Eastern Massachusetts, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw has been one of the most vocal supporters of same-sex marriage, but also one of the most determined to differentiate between civil and religious marriage.
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Federal Judge Stresses Trial Record on Calif. Gay-Marriage Ban
Whatever Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker winds up deciding on Proposition 8, it’s clear he wants an airtight trial record to support it.
Holding his first hearing Thursday on the controversial measure that outlawed same-sex marriage, Walker repeatedly stressed the importance of establishing a record that will stand the test of time.
He told a packed courtroom that he was “reasonably sure” that the challenge launched by two high-profile litigators is “only touching down in this court” and merely a “prelude” for things to come.
“How we do things here,” Walker said, “is more important than what we do.”
He noted that other courts have rendered decisions on same-sex marriage without holding full trials, which he suggested was a “problem.”
Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 09-CV-2292, was filed in May by Theodore Olson, who represented George W. Bush in the landmark Bush v. Gore case, and David Boies, who represented Al Gore. Boies wasn’t present on Thursday. The suit attacks Prop 8 on equal protection and due process grounds.
Walker had already issued a tentative order allowing Prop 8 proponents to intervene and denying a preliminary injunction (pdf). He stood by both orders during Thursday’s 50-minute session.
Olson, a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C., office who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 55 times, nonetheless made a fleeting attempt to persuade Walker to change his mind on the injunction.
“Every day that Prop 8 is enforced perpetuates a tragic injustice” on gays and lesbians, he argued, saying it “brands” them as “second-class citizens, unworthy and different.”
“The Supreme Court,” Olson argued, “has held again and again and again that the right to marry is the most important relationship in life.”
Representing the Prop 8 proponents, Washington attorney Charles Cooper, who was a top Justice Department lawyer during the Reagan administration, warned that the lawsuit could “sweep away” not only Prop 8, but the definition of marriage in 43 states and the federal government.
The Cooper & Kirk partner also argued that marriage has by tradition always been the union of a man and a woman, and said that every Supreme Court case that describes marriage has noted that its central purpose is procreation.
See Federal Judge Stresses Trial Record on Calif. Gay-Marriage Ban Above the Law
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Look Who’s in Bed Together on Gay Marriage Fight
L ying on his cot in the Longworth House Office Building in the small of the night, Jason Chaffetz had a scary dream: The conservative Republican from Utah had beaten the odds, defeated an incumbent and made it to Washington, only to end up by some bizarre twist of events arm-in-arm with Marion Barry, the crack-smoking laughingstock former mayor of the District of Columbia.
“Oh man, if I had run a campaign saying I’d be working closely with Marion Barry, I don’t know that I would have been elected,” Chaffetz says.
The nightmare turns out to be reality: Chaffetz, once the placekicker on the Brigham Young University football team, is now the ranking Republican on the House subcommittee in charge of D.C. affairs, and in that role he is leading the rush against the District’s decision to recognize same-sex marriages. The freshman congressman is utterly confident that his is the moral position on the issue, but he admits to a certain frisson of doubt when he learned that his accidental ally in this fight is the former Mayor for Life, an erstwhile champion of gay rights who has decided that same-sex nuptials are immoral.
Chaffetz has never met Barry, but he’s willing to have lunch with the man — if Barry is willing to meet at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, the only Washington restaurant the congressman frequents. (This may prove to be a stumbling block, as Barry leans more toward fruit juices and health foods these days.)
If the two do break bread, they’ll discover that they share a view that gay couples ought to have the same legal rights as any other Americans, but should not be permitted to marry. They’ll take comfort in the fact that their views are both based on the biblical definition of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. They’re both happy to point to the fact that President Obama is also opposed to gay marriage.
But the lunch is destined not to be a lovefest. It’s not just that Chaffetz and Barry come from wildly disparate backgrounds or represent very different Americas, although it is true that Chaffetz’s district is 88 percent white and only 25 percent of his constituents have a college degree, whereas Washington is 56 percent black and 45 percent of its residents have a bachelor’s or beyond.
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Minnesota Poll: A subtle shift on gay unions
With the state Supreme Court in neighboring Iowa rewriting that state’s definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, Minnesotans are divided on the subject in this state, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll finds:
• One-third say the state needs a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage;
• Just over one-third say that there should be no change in current state law, which bans such unions, and that it should be left to the Minnesota Supreme Court to rule on the law’s constitutionality;
• One-fourth believe same-sex marriage should be legalized.
The survey of 1,042 adults was conducted April 20-23, and has a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points, plus or minus.
See Minnesota Poll: A subtle shift on gay unions
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Gay marriage gets recognition – in the dictionary
(San Francisco, California) Same-sex marriage might not be recognized in most states, but it is in the dictionary.
Merriam-Webster included a secondary definition of marriage to recognize same-sex relationships several years before gay couples were allowed to tie the knot anywhere in the United States, but the change had gone largely …
Children learn bigotry at home, in their neighborhoods
A Utah Senate committee voted down 4-2 the first in a series of Common Ground Initiatives that support basic rights for the gay and lesbian people of Utah. The reasons given were that this is a “slippery slope” and that this legislation may lead to the “chipping away [of] the definition of marriage.” But this is not about marriage.
It is about civil rights. This is about a recognized group of people, accomplished and contributing, who are not protected by the law of this land. The rights to fair housing and employment protections, inheritance and hospitalization visits are basic civil liberties that are being denied to our neighbors, teachers, business owners, families and friends.
It’s not about marriage; it’s about finding common ground. I am a teacher in the valley and I know as well as anyone that students are products of their environments: their families, churches, neighbors and legislators. In a classroom activity about stereotypes, a third of my students replied that homosexual people are “deformed, horrifying.” That they are “scary people,” “rapists” and they are “insane” or have “a mental condition.” Allowing these misinformed attitudes to go unchecked is a slippery slope.
This is not about marriage; this is about what students are learning.
This is about raising future generations of people who, despite their differences, can see and respect all people for who they are. If our legislators are not willing to grant
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“Traditional Marriage” Resolution Passes – Sioux City Sides with the Bigots
One of today’s most controversial topics drew passionate comments from Sioux City residents Monday, as the City Council debated a resolution supporting the “traditional” definition of marriage, between one man and one woman. “Because character, in my opinion, is all about faith and beliefs.” Councilman Ferris talked for several minutes Monday, explaining why he re-introduced the resolution after voting to table the measure in December, 2008. “Our belief system is at the base of those decisions.” He said morality is more important than being politically correct. He claimed the council ‘skirted’ the issue when it tabled the resolution. “I have an obligation to my faith,” he explained. But after opening to public comment, some residents agreed with Councilman Rixner, echoing his argument that the resolution is none of the City’s business. “The separation of church and state, is that sacred, anymore,” said one resident. But voices like hers were outnumbered a dozen times over, in a room with few chairs to spare. Many argued for traditional marriage, but for different reasons. ”We will most certainly face the issue of polygamy,” said another supporter, continuing, “If we give them an inch, they’ll ask for a mile.
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New civil union bill proposed in Maine
An Alna Republican wants to find common ground in the debate about gay marriage by extending more rights to gay and lesbian couples without calling it “marriage.”
Rep. Les Fossel — whose district includes Pittston and Dresden — said Monday he submitted a measure to the Legislature’s bill-writing office that would expand legal rights and benefits to gay or lesbian couples under the state’s existing domestic-partner registry.
“If you look back at the history of equal rights — blacks, women or any group — there’s a whole bunch of people who fight about names, and there are people who change laws,” he said. “The point here is, let’s change the laws.”
Fossel said he decided to put the measure forward after last week’s announcement that Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, would sponsor a gay-marriage bill that aims to change Maine’s definition of marriage so it’s a recognized union between two people.
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Battle over gay marriage shifts to Maine
BOSTON (Reuters) – A Maine lawmaker introduced a bill on Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage, but it looks set to face tough opposition and bring a rancorous fight over the definition of marriage to the rugged eastern state.
The legislation proposed by Democratic state Sen. Dennis Damonck would make the state the nation’s third to allow same-sex marriage. It seeks to redefine marriage as the legal union of two people rather than between a man and a women.
“Today I have submitted an act to end discrimination in civil marriage and to affirm religious freedom,” he told a news conference in the state capital Augusta.
As he spoke, Republican Rep. John Tardy was drafting legislation to enshrine the definition of marriage as one man and one woman into the state constitution. “The language is being worked on now,” his spokesman said.
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