Gay Illinois treasurer candidate overseeing lesbian union
Reverend Dan Rodriguez-Schlorff, the Green Party candidate for the Illinois State Treasurer, will officiate a wedding ceremony uniting two women in a private ceremony in May.
The couple first approached Mr Schlorff after hearing him speak at the Matthew Shepard rally last October.
Since then, he has been meeting with them to discuss their future together. Following the ceremony, the couple will marry legally in Canada, where same-sex unions were decriminalised five years ago. Mr Schlorff says the ceremony will be very similar to a wedding for an opposite-sex couple.
“The same Scriptures will be read, and the same vows will be given. The couple’s families will even take part.
“The gaping hole in the ceremony will be the legal agreement.” Illinois ministers may not legally join two loving people of the same gender. “When I wear my collar, I remain obedient to many laws-not just to those of the state.”
Instead of including legal pronouncements of marriage, he will include a legal disclaimer. “The disclaimer itself will not be romantic or sexy, but real unions aren’t about romance or sex. These two women truly love each other, and therefore their ceremony will serve as a witness to that love.”
Fellow Green partisan, Jason West, who serves as Mayor of New Paltz, NY faces criminal charges for solemnising twenty-four marriages in 2004. “I greatly admire Mayor West for this pro-family service,” Mr Schlorff said.
Mr Schlorff entered full-time ministry after graduating from a Chicago seminary last year. He currently serves on the Finance Committee for the Green Party of the United States.
Other Greens running for statewide office include Rich Whitney of Carbondale for Governor, Julie Samuels of Oak Park for Lt. Governor, Karen Young of Chicago for Secretary of State, David Black of Rockford for Attorney General and Alicia Snyder of Centralia for Comptroller.
“I am thrilled to keep such diverse and talented company” Mr Schlorff said. “Of our six candidates for the State Constitutional Officers, three are female, and three are people of colour. I will be the first Asian candidate for an Illinois statewide office, and the first openly gay candidate.”
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