Baltimore Presbytery backs suit seeking gay marriages
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 19, 2004
The Presbytery of Baltimore voted 51-35 Thursday to support an American Civil Liberties Union suit to convince Maryland courts that the state should recognize civil “marriages” of homosexual couples.
The presbytery will join other religious organizations in Maryland as amici curiae (friends of the court) in the case. A “friend of the court” is not a party to the litigation, but is permitted by the court to advise it in respect to some matter of law that directly affects the case in question.
Charles Forbes, stated clerk of the Presbytery of Baltimore and a supporter of the Baltimore chapter of That All May Freely Serve, said the amicus curiae brief has not been written and the other religious organizations supporting the ACLU effort to extend marital rights to homosexuals have not been identified.
He said only Maryland organizations will be asked to be amici curiae, noting that the 216th General Assembly voted to prohibit its staff from taking stands on same-sex marriage proposals.
By joining the case as advocates of same-gender marriages, the Presbytery of Baltimore will be taking a position that conflicts with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The denomination’s constitution recognizes that marriage – whether civil or church – is a union of a man and a woman and not two people of the same sex.
The Presbytery of Baltimore has worked and voted consistently over the years to both oppose and defy church law over ordaining practicing homosexuals. One of its members, the Rev. Donald Stroud, is openly homosexual.
A complaint was filed challenging Stroud’s right to be a member of the presbytery, but the presbytery’s investigating committee would not allow a trial on the charge. Currently, however, an Administrative Review Commission of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic is reviewing the presbytery’s action.
Stroud serves on the Baltimore staff of That All May Freely Serve, a gay-rights activist group. In addition to Forbes, other leaders in the presbytery have financially supported That All May Freely Serve.
Forbes told The Layman Online that the debate on whether the presbytery would join the amicus curiae brief lasted about 45 minutes. Before voting to join the brief, the presbytery voted 49-41 against postponing a decision until January.
The ACLU is asking the Maryland courts to make a determination similar to that rendered by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The organization says it will target a number of states besides Maryland for court action to allow homosexuals the right to marry.
Eleven states voted on Nov. 2 to pass constitutional amendments limiting state-sanctioned marriage to a man and a woman and prohibiting recognition of homosexual marriages.
“The results yesterday ended nothing,” Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said the day after the election. “Lawsuits to end the exclusion will go forward in New York, California, Washington, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut and Indiana. Same-sex couples will marry, and become fully a part of the American landscape. The promise of equality in our constitution demands no less. And sooner or later, that promise will be kept.”