Kingston, New York Ministers Charged for Conducting Homosexual “Marriages”

KINGSTON, N.Y., March 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two Unitarian Universalist ministers—Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey—were charged with criminal offences Monday for conducting 13 homosexual “marriages” over the weekend.  District Attorney for Ulster County, Donald Williams, said that the law prohibiting homosexual “marriages” makes no distinction between religious ministers and officials who hold public office. Williams is likely referring to New Paltz Mayor Jason West who last month was charged with 19 counts of solemnizing a marriage without a license. Williams told The Associated Press that the charges were laid because the marriages were “drastically different” from religious ceremonies, since Greenleaf and Sangrey stated publicly that they were civil marriages.  “It is not our intention to interfere with anyone’s right to express their religious beliefs, including the right of members of the clergy to perform ceremonies where couples are united solely in the eyes of the church or any other faith,” Williams said in defence of his actions. Some groups have charged that Williams is violating the constitution, which promises religious freedom.  A statement released to the press said that Unitarian Universalist Association ministers have been “marrying” homosexuals for 35 years.  Meanwhile, openly homosexual Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, ordained last year as bishop of New Hampshire, told reporters Monday that “If the civil right of marriage were to become legal in New Hampshire, I think we’d be married in a minute,” referring to his partner Mark Andrew. Robinson is a 56-year-old divorced father of two.  Also, in related news, former Surgeon General Dr. Jocelyn Elders, in an address to a national meeting of the million-member United Methodist Women’s organization, said that the Bush administration “has no business interfering” in the issue of homosexual marriage. “I see no problem with gay couples marrying,” she said. The comment came as a surprise to the group. The official stance of the United Methodist Church is that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”  Elders was appointed Surgeon General by former President Bill Clinton, who later called for her resignation after Elders appealed for an increase in sex education, including “self stimulation” as an alternative to sex outside of marriage.  Defenders of marriage have been arguing that all homosexual persons have the same right as anyone to marry a person of the opposite sex. They just do not have the right, it is emphasized,  to “marry” someone of the same sex since that would not be a marriage.  Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage “Same-Sex Marriage Agenda Steamrolls On in US” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030505.html