The New Jersey
Division on Civil Rights ruled Monday that a church group
discriminated against a lesbian couple when it denied them
the right to hold their civil union ceremony on
beachfront property the group owns but has advanced as
a public space.
The division
found that Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster had probable
cause to claim that the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Association's rejection of their bid to rent the
boardwalk violates the state's antidiscrimination law.
According to a press release from the LGBT civil
rights organization Garden State Equality, the opinion was
based on the boardwalk pavilion's being "public" by
nature of its historic use as open to everyone without
restrictions. For years, the Camp Meeting Association
had applied for and received state tax breaks under New
Jersey's "Green Acres" program, which
requires facilities to be open and nondiscriminatory
to all. In September 2007 the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection ended the association's tax
breaks for the boardwalk area based on the
group's ban on civil unions.
Following the
ruling in favor of the couple, an administrative law judge
will now issue a ruling on how to remedy the situation.
"What this case
has always been about from my clients' perspective has
been equality," Larry Lustberg, the couple's lawyer, told
the Associated Press. Lustberg said they are seeking
an order that would require the boardwalk to be
equally accessible to everyone.
Alliance Defense
Fund attorney Brian Raum, who represents the Camp
Meeting Association, said his client would attempt to
continue blocking civil union ceremonies on the
property.
"Our position is
the same," he told the AP. "A Christian organization
has a constitutional right to use their facilities in a way
that is consistent with their beliefs." (Advocate.com)
