Rulings favorable to gay marriage, rights lawyer says
Tim Martin
Plain Dealer Reporter

History shines an optimistic light on the legalization of same-sex marriage, as the Supreme Court previously has ruled in favor of revising the definition of marriage, said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry.

Wolfson, co-counsel in the landmark 1996 Hawaii same-sex marriage case, told more than 100 people at the City Club of Cleveland Friday that the Supreme Court has set a precedent by accepting interracial marriages, acknowledging wives as legal equals to their husbands and granting couples the freedom to use contraceptives. And those decisions came when public polls did not show support.

When the Supreme Court struck down laws against interracial marriages in 1967, opinion polls found that 70 percent of the public disagreed, Wolfson said.

"This is not ancient history. This is the history of our country in our lifetime and is the history that has played out on the civil rights and human rights battleground of marriage," he said. "Our country stands for the proposition that all people have the right to be both different and equal. No one should have to give up her or his difference in order to be treated equally."


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Diocese faces a crucial decision
Albany -- Episcopalian vote on whether to join conservative Anglican network closely watched amid gay debate
By JAMES COLLINS, Staff writer


Members of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany will vote at their annual convention today whether to affiliate with a new network of conservative churches that vehemently opposes the ordination of gay priests.
-Clergy and lay leaders from 19 counties in New York will meet in Speculator, Hamilton County, to address a theological split over homosexuality and other issues that have divided congregations within the 20,000-member diocese for more than two years.

The vote will hinge on a platform offered by the Anglican Communion Network, a conservative group formed in January by the leaders of 12 U.S. dioceses, including Albany Bishop Daniel Herzog. A vote to join the network would likely deepen the rift between liberal Episcopalians who support the ordination of gay priests and orthodox believers who reject the practice.

Organizers on both sides agreed that clergy will likely vote in favor of joining the network. Opponents of the move, however, held out hope that the laity would reject the measure.