Community debates church's role in gay life, marriage

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers face increasing challenges to their U.S. Constitutional rights as American citizens but the battle toward recognized statewide GLBT human rights continues.\nCommunity members representing the local chapter of the Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays hosted a three-part forum Saturday morning titled "Journey to Justice: Promoting a Welcoming Society for GLBT People in your Faith Community and Beyond," co-sponsored by Indiana Equality and the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination, to educate community members about how they might approach their clergy and congregation in regards to the American dream of increased inclusion and their demonstrated support for GLBT human rights. \nAbout 60 Hoosiers from across the state attended the faith-based discussion at First United Church Bloomington, representing 10 denominations and 14 congregations from southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, to learn among other topics how community members might incorporate GLBT Hoosiers into their Christian ministry and what congregation members can do to ensure no Hoosier is left behind at the Christian pew regardless of their God-given gender or sexual preferences.\n"If you think there are no gay people in your congregation, you are wrong," said Dan Funk, executive director of ICON, during his lecture leading the day's three-part series. "You don't know they're there because they are not allowed to live with integrity in your congregation."\nConsidering homosexual orientations among other gender issues have existed since the birth of humanity, Funk told the crowd that GLBT God-loving and Jesus-worshiping community members are often afraid to admit their sexual orientation and sexual preferences to other congregation members based on the fear of condemnation from their Hoosier neighbors. He said the current proposed Hoosier congressional amendment to the Indiana Constitution dictating a "union consists only of the union of one man and one woman" violates the "equal protection" clause of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution among other American civil liberties.\n"I ask 'what is a marriage?'" Funk said. "Is it just a piece of paper or a covenant you and your partner make in front of God, family and friends that you will forever love and honor each other?"\nFunk said the first line of the so-called "Marriage Protection Act," called SJR 0007 in Indiana and now legislated in more than 20 states, is not as problematic as the second line which states "this Constitution or any other Indiana law may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." \nHe highlighted what GLBT Hoosiers and all other nontraditional community members like older folks and divorced Catholics unable to remarry will lose if prejudice, discrimination and hate are legislated into the Indiana Constitution in the form of GLBT exclusion: loss of co-partner insurance rights, loss of adoption rights, loss of inheritance rights, loss of hospital visitation rights, loss of housing options, loss of employment options, loss of educational opportunities, loss of other tax benefits of "marriage," diluting of hate crime legislation and loss of domestic violence protection. \nNot a single forum attendee challenged the idea that marriage is the root of community life and the likening of same-sex unions to pedophilia, polygamy and bestiality were left outside the church doors so the participants could focus their attention to the topic at-hand: uniting congregations across the state under the banner of "inclusion" because all Christians are part of the body of Christ and are the children of God made in his image according to scripture.\n"In Indiana, a worker can be fired because of the assumption that employee is gay or transgender," Funk said. "What can we do to change this in the state of Indiana? Homosexual couples face the same issues as heterosexual couples: they pay taxes, they work, they have children and they worry about paying bills and getting the car fixed."\nGLBT community members received some relief in April as the Common Council added "gender identity" as a protected subgroup of the community human rights ordinance, but GLBT Hoosiers statewide face continued challenges to their U.S. Constitutional rights from Eric Miller's "Advance America" among other organizations.\nAdvance America claims to include 45,000 families, 1,500 businesses and more than 3,700 churches from across the state to advocate "pro-family, pro-church, pro-private and home school, and pro-tax reform" agendas. Miller, who is known for busing Hoosiers young and old to the statehouse to support his fiery anti-GLBT rhetoric, has pledged to raise more then $3 million to ensure Indiana's constitutional amendment SJR 0007 becomes a 21st century reality.\nFaith-based forum participants, including many heterosexual community members, pledged to counter Miller's so-called "hate debate" messages with Jesus-like love and tolerance for all Hoosiers regardless of their God-given gender identity and sexual preferences. Considering about 500,000 American couples were identified as same-sex during the 2000 census, including more than 10,000 Hoosiers, participants said "loving the sinner but hating the sin" does not apply because no one chooses to lead a "sinful" GLBT lifestyle that will result in a lifetime of social stigma and neighbor-to-neighbor discrimination.\nFunk said community members of faith can no longer sit on the sideline while their GLBT neighbors are threatened with discriminatory legislation because one moral obligation of Christianity is to stand up for equality and justice for all.\n"A welcoming congregation opens its door to all and welcomes GLBT people in. No matter what walk of life you are from, you are welcome to come worship with us," he said. "Open and affirming congregations act out and speak out for GLBT people as a matter of faith. They don't believe homosexuality is an abomination that should be condemned and they allow GLBT persons to participate in active roles in the church."\nSimilar to national legislation that once forbid African Americans from marrying whites, participants said SJR 0007, if legislated into the Indiana Constitution, will write discrimination into a national document historically modified only to legalize American rights and not to strip them for any segment of the American population for religious reasons.