The danger of religious exemptions in New York’s same-sex marriage bill

Should their be religious exemptions for same-sex marriage legislation?

I suppose that hinges on what one means by “exemption” and what it would exempt religious individuals, businesses, and organizations from. While it’s important to protect the integrity and religious liberty of American citizens, I’m concerned that this debate is simply a smokescreen that will, once again, make gay unions fall short of the rights and protections that straight married couples currently enjoy. The same-sex marriage bill being considered in New York already has exemptions for clergy, so that traditions who disapprove of same-sex marriage don’t have to perform weddings or other ceremonies, and for religious organizations, so that they don’t have to rent their halls to potential homosexual-favoring events. However, this is seemingly not enough. Religious groups and their political allies are pushing for further exemptions, ones that would protect nonprofits and even businesses from the perceived taint of homosexual commitment. For many that is an exemption too far, one that could fall afoul of already-existing non-discrimination laws.

It seems to me these religious groups want an exemption from social and cultural changes happening around them. While our religious freedoms certainly give everyone the right to think, practice, and believe as they wish, it does not, and should not, allow what amounts to diplomatic immunity from anti-discrimination and civil rights laws. The thought of a photographer who expressly won’t work at Jewish weddings or interracial weddings due to their prejudice turns our stomachs, would very likely be condemned by the very group now pushing for exemptions, and is against state and federal civil rights acts, yet isn’t that what we are debating here? The right to not just have religious freedom, but to give a legal waiver to businesses owned by religious men and women? The ramifications are chilling. Once you open the door to exemptions for nonprofits that receive federal dollars and private businesses owned by religious individuals, you pave the way for entrenched, institutionalized discrimination based on sexual orientation. If the supposed moral religious leaders in this debate have become so debased that they are actually arguing for the rights of florists and caterers to discriminate against gay couples I can’t see how they maintain any semblance of higher ground.

Often overlooked in this wrangling over exemptions are religious groups that fully support equal rights and protections for all American citizens, even the gay ones. Gay marriage is almost wholly uncontroversial among modern Pagan faiths. Druid group Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) has “never believed that the institution of marriage could possibly be threatened by the existence of married people of any gender,” while Pagan scholar Michael York, author of “Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion,” underlines that sentiment by proclaiming that “freedom has to be the highest Pagan goal and virtue.” Gay marriage has been endorsed by notable Pagan leaders like my fellow co-panelist Starhawk, along with leading Pagan organizations like Covenant of the Goddess (COG) and Cherry Hill Seminary. Yet, despite this, few seem unconcerned that one religious moral view concerning marriage is allowed to override another. The simple fact is that certain Christian and Catholic groups are used to getting their way, and it matters little to them if a moral world-view they endorse overrules the world-views of other religious groups. So the more exemptions granted, the more we’re tacitly saying a socially conservative Judeo-Christian approach to these issues is the de facto “religious” perspective.

Last year I said at this very forum that our idea of marriage needs to innovate, not stagnate. That “so long as this discussion stays centered on issues of tradition and boundaries we will continue to see marriage become an obsolete relic of a previous age.” I’m not surprised my words fell on deaf ears, I’m simply one Pagan writer from a small religious minority with little political influence, but I do think it’s sad that this discussion has evolved into a squabble over one entrenchment after another, a prolonged rear-guard action that will do more to destroy marriage than a will a million married same-sex couples. The more Catholics, socially conservative Protestants, and Orthodox Jews try to wall off a piece of society for themselves, the more irrelevant they will ultimately become in future generations.

Jason Pitzl-Waters  | Jun 23, 2011 1:54 PM