THE RELIGIOUS COALITION FOR THE FREEDOM TO MARRY
PRESS RELEASE

RELIGIOUS LEADERS SUPPORT CIVIL MARRIAGE EFFORT

Call on Legislators to Reject Religious Arguments

(Boston, June 5, 2003) Key religious leaders and others representing faiths and congregations that support the quest to secure civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples called on the legislature today to avoid siding with any one faith, saying that there were hundreds of congregations and many faiths which support the effort. Today's press conference follows the move of the Catholic bishops last week encouraging legislators to back a constitutional amendment to forever deny civil marriage to gay couples.

"The citizens and our legislators on Beacon Hill need to know that there are religious people who support the right to marry for same-sex couples," said The Rev. William G. Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Association of congregations. "Unitarian Universalists know from experience the many blessings that gay and lesbian families bring to our congregations, and we are committed to supporting these families in every way possible."

The religious leaders spoke in the Eliot Chapel today at the UUA headquarters in Boston from the Channing Pulpit, the same pulpit used by Massachusetts politicians at the Federal Street Church in Boston when the Bill of Rights was debated and the United States Constitution was ratified.

"Marriage is a paradigm for the ideals of cooperation, trust, mutual responsibility, continuity and affection," said Rabbi Ronne Friedman, senior Rabbi at Temple Israel in Boston. "Certainly, the same qualities can and do exist for lesbian and gay couples. It is no more in the interest of society to deny legal status to same-gender marriages than it would be to abolish heterosexual marriages."

A civil suit filed on behalf of seven plaintiff couples by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) is expected to be decided by the Supreme Judicial Court as early as this month. The case, argued before the SJC in March, seeks civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts.

The Rev. Dr. Nancy Taylor, president, Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ, sent a letter to every legislator this week clarifying that the GLAD suit only impacts civil marriages and specifically does not address religious ceremonies. "The Catholic Church has every right to try to enforce its teachings among its own members, but we believe the question before the legislators must be argued and decided on the grounds of civil rights, not Catholic, or any other religious doctrine," she wrote.

Rev. Anne Fowler, the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain said, "Gay and lesbian singles and couples need and want full recognition and inclusion in civil society. Civil marriage rights are a civil right. And civil marriage rights are the only way that couples who have made a lifelong commitment can fully protect themselves and their children."

"We are a group of more than 450 clergy from over a dozen different faith traditions," said Rabbi Devon Lerner, co-chair of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. "While we honor every religious community's right to determine the definition of a religious marriage, we also believe in the inherent right of gay and lesbian couples to be given the rights, protections and legal responsibilities under the law."

Unitarian Universalist Association
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