People of Faith for Equality in Virginia

Tie a Knot for Love!!!

Tie.A.Knot.4.Love.web Tell the U.S. Supreme Court you support marriage equality! Tie a Knot for Love from March 22 through March 27 to show you support the legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California Proposition 8 the Supreme Court will be hearing that week. Any color is welcome, just as any person is. Please share this event with others!

The Supreme Court cases challenging DOMA and Prop 8 give people of faith and others who support marriage equality a historic opportunity to show their true, and multi-hued, colors. POFEV (People of Faith for Equality in Virginia) is asking Virginians to join in a campaign, as part of United for Marriage: Light the Way to Justice, to engage in public witness in late March to send a powerful message of solidarity with the challengers to DOMA and Prop 8 when they make their case before the Supreme Court.

Make a difference.

First, please Tie a Knot for Love beginning on Friday evening, March 22 and continuing through March 27. In the spirit of the rainbow, there is no designated color—wear whatever color suits you, even a rainbow ribbon (available at many crafts and fabric shops). Then, when people ask you why you are wearing a ribbon, tell them it is “a knot for love.” If they want to know more, tell them about your support for marriage equality and for Supreme Court action ending marriage discrimination. You can do this wherever you are! Be sure to let others know by signing up and sharing on Facebook.

Second, consider going to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 26 for an early morning interfaith prayer service at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation and/or to the vigil at the U.S. Supreme Court Building at mid-morning. Information about all these events is available here.

Third, please take action with your congregation or on your own to hold prayer vigils and similar events over the course of these days, in addition to speaking out during Friday, Saturday and Sunday services prior to the hearings in the Supreme Court.

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The Supremes: What Love Has to Do With It

us-supreme-court It seems as if almost every week we have some significant development in the journey toward LGBT equality to report. This won’t go on forever, of course, but in truth these are good times to be engaged in the cause.

This week, there is an unusual (until now at least) item that shows promise for future gains—and is in itself a gain right now.

POFEV has joined Equality Virginia and equality organizations in 23 “red” states in support of an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief with the United States Supreme Court in two cases that soon will be argued before the justices. The cases are: Hollingsworth v. Perry (the Prop 8 Case from CA) and United States v. Windsor (the case involving the repeal of DOMA, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act). In this case, “red state” does not necessarily mean states that voted for Mitt Romney, but rather states where legislatures and other state leaders are hostile to LGBT equality and rights.

Our alliance across these states is an important antidote to the bigoted amici curiae briefs already filed with the Supreme Court: 16 states, including Virginia, joined the multi-state brief filed in support of DOMA in “Windsor.” Likewise, 20 states, again including Virginia, asked the Court to uphold Prop 8 in ”Perry.”

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Our Spiritual Work in the Public Square

Happy_Valentines I don’t know about you, but I am very glad to be alive at this time in the journey toward full equality for LGBT people—in Virginia and everywhere. The struggle is global and there is much to celebrate. How about the British House of Commons voting so strongly for marriage equality? I did not see that coming, so it was a joyous surprise.

Here in Virginia, we have good news, too!

This year, on February 14, people of faith and other friends of equality will gather at five courthouses to make a powerful witness for marriage for all in Virginia. That’s FIVE locations all around the Commonwealth—Arlington, Winchester, Charlottesville, Hampton, and Richmond (where it all began in 2004). Never before have we had more than three! Thanks to Kevin Clay and others at EV for helping to make this possible.

I am so proud of the couples who will march boldly forward and present their marriage license applications—and in more and more cases simply present a copy of their certificate of legal marriage from another jurisdiction—claiming the truth of their love and their clear demand that Virginia join a growing number of states, districts (like D.C.), and nations who recognize same-gender-loving families as every bit as genuine and worthy of respect as different-gender-loving families.

Family is family. Family comes in many different configurations. It’s time to welcome and support all our families.

interfaith_circle_symbols And for us, as people of faith, this struggle also involves religious freedom. That freedom, of course, includes people of no faith to be able to live their lives without having to follow the rules of any faith, AND it also includes the right of those of us of one faith not to have to live under the rules of another faith.

So many of us now practice our faith in traditions which recognize and celebrate same-gender-loving families. My own tradition of Metropolitan Community Churches led the way, but Unitarian Universalism, Reform Judaism, the United Church of Christ, and the Episcopal Church explicitly are now in this camp, and increasingly Conservative Judaism, the Presbyterians, Unity, and others are joining the fold. And even in other traditions, there are many leaders and members who are clear about their support.

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