That's What We're Talking About
Church to Continue Marrying Gay Couples
11/11/2005 11:45:47 PM
Posted By: Jim Forsyth
Despite Tuesday's overwhelming vote approving a Constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage in Texas, one prominent Texas pastor says she'll continue marrying gay couples, and the separation of church and state prevents the government from doing anything about it, 1200 WOAI news reported today.
The Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson, pastor of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, which bills itself as the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and 'transgendered' church in the world. tells 1200 WOAI news that she'll continue performing gay marriages, just like she's done for years.
"For all of our 35 years, we have married gay men, lesbian women, bisexual people, as well as heterosexual people," she said. "The service is the same as with a traditional marriage, the vows are the same."
She says weddings are a religious service and have nothing to do with the government. "it is two people who have been in a loving relationship who decide to come together and promise to profess that loving relationship before God." The marriages have no legal standing in the state of Texas, but Hudson points out they had no legal standing before, so the Constitutional amendment really had no impact. She says when gay couples emerge from one of her services, they are just as married as anybody else from a religious point of view. "They simply don't have some 1100 rights and privileges that other couples have, and we think that is enshrining discrimination into our constitution," Rev. Hudson said. "Religious people may gather and worship and may bless relationships, and honor people, and bless their relationships before God in a way that they choose," she said. "That won't change." The amendment carries no provisions for punishing or sanctioning anybody who participates in, or conducts, a gay wedding ceremony.
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Wednesday, November 9, 2005 / 09:47 AM
Voters in Maine solidly rejected Christian conservatives' efforts to repeal the state's new gay- and transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination law.
In the past, conservatives were successful in knocking the law off the books with a people's veto in 1998 and in 2000. But this time the law stayed with solid support. With 86 percent of precincts reporting in, 55 percent of people voted to keep the law, with 45 percent against it.
The governor suggested the election outcome was a sign that Maine is a welcoming place for everyone.
The vote "reaffirms the basic values that are intrinsic in Maine," said Gov. John Baldacci. "Mainers don't like discrimination ... if it happens to one person it happens to all of us."
Gov. Baldacci had introduced the law, which the state Legislature quickly passed in March.
Conservatives immediately went to work to defeat the measure. Led by groups called the Christian Civic League of Maine and the Maine Grassroots Coalition, they worked to fulfill a tight 90-day deadline for gathering signatures. The ballot question read, "Do you want to reject the new law that would protect people from discrimination in employment, housing, education public accommodations and credit based on their sexual orientation?"
In their speeches against the law, opponents of the law drummed up the specter of marriage. They suggested the law was the first step toward creating marriage rights for gay couples. They also argued that such discrimination protection was unnecessary.
To counter that notion, Maine Won't Discriminate, a broad coalition of groups supporting the nondiscrimination law, put together TV spots in which gay men talked about the discrimination and harassment they faced in Maine. Four political action committees that supported the discrimination protection out-fundraised their opponents with about $930,000 in the bank compared to conservatives' $336,000.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, hailed the national significance of Maine's vote.
"After the marriage amendment losses we've experienced over the last 12 months, this is a much-needed victory for our national movement -- it proves we can win statewide contests," he said.
Residents of Texas, however, voted Tuesday to make their state the 19th to amend its state constitution to ban same-sex couples from marrying.
Maine was the last New England state to add this discrimination protection to its laws.