Gay-friendly
coalition in Virginia offers faith-based alternative

After a decade teaching ethics at a Presbyterian graduate school, Isabel Rogers was confident she'd helped hundreds of students draft airtight moral maps to life. An anonymous letter told her otherwise. It read, "The one thing you did not prepare me for was how to handle a love relationship with a person of my own sex," recalled Rogers, now retired. "I knew that was true. I had not been dealing with what's a very important issue in the Christian life," she said. Rogers, who went on to advocate for gay acceptance in the church, is among a growing group of clergy, community leaders, and strongly spiritual residents forming People of Faith for Equality in Virginia. Organizers aim to be the antithesis of the vocal conservative Christian set, offering a faith-based yet gay-friendly perspective that they say is absent in Virginia's gay rights discussions. "We want to bring a different voice," said group organizer the Reverend Robin Gorsline, who is with the Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond. "Part of this is about just trying to make sure that the playing field has both teams." Plans for the mixed-denomination group include engaging voters in gay rights talks and pressuring legislators to back away from laws against same-sex couples. Pat McSweeney, chairman of the board of Family Foundation Action, welcomed Gorsline's group as much as possible, considering his opposing views. "We certainly invite anyone to participate in the debate," he said. "It would be a mighty dull world if everyone agreed." People of Faith is mobilizing as conservative efforts pick up speed. Virginia legislators overwhelmingly approved a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage this year. They must approve it again in 2006, after an intervening house of delegates election, before it could appear on the ballot as early as November 2006. Nationally, voters approved same-sex marriage bans in all 11 states that held referendums in the fall. "We're now getting to the point where people aren't satisfied with discriminating against [gays and lesbians] privately," said John Humphrey, a group organizer and civil rights attorney in Alexandria. "We've begun to legislate it." Gorsline calls it the result of a steady drumbeat of antigay rhetoric too often rooted in religion. He said would-be supporters, often sitting silent in pews, will find a voice in the new group. But organizers have a lot of catching up to do. "The strong conservative Christian groups have been working at this for about 20 years," he said. Though gay-friendly religious leaders are peppered throughout the country, they've lacked organization, said Lee Badgett, research director with the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, adding that such a failure to connect, paired with the substantial influence of many conservative leaders, could prove daunting. "There's no question there will be an uphill battle," Badgett said, noting that the payoff of a strong pro-gay religious push could have far-reaching effects. "If there's more diversity of religious opinion, it would be harder to use religion to prohibit gay couples to marry." People of Faith member Brenda Lee, a lesbian, hopes the group can change lives as well as legislation. The 53-year-old Virginia Union University seminary school student advised a teenager who'd been told her emerging lesbian identity was sinful. "People of Faith will bring forth some understanding so that people can no longer tell young adolescents they're going to hell," said Lee, whose struggles with her own sexuality led her to leave the church for a time. Equality Virginia, the state's premier gay rights organization, will work closely with the new group in upcoming months, said executive director Dyana Mason. (The groups aren't affiliated.) Gorsline said about 25 people attended a recent meeting, and 80 from across the state have expressed interest. Members don't have to be gay--just committed to redefining "traditional family values." "Slavery was a traditional value," Gorsline said. "We're for durable values, ones that last and really help people live their lives fully." (AP)