2 ministers charged for gay nuptials

By KEITH EDDINGS
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: March 16, 2004)

Two Unitarian ministers — including one from Westchester — who married 25 gay couples in New Paltz this month were charged yesterday with performing the ceremonies without marriage licenses, setting the stage for a landmark legal battle that will pit the government against the churches on the issue for the first time.

"This office fully understands, appreciates and supports the significance of separation of church and state," Ulster County District Donald Williams said in a statement he issued yesterday, acknowledging that he is opening new constitutional questions in the battle over gay marriage.

He said he is obliged to charge the ministers, the Revs. Dawn Sangrey and Kay Greenleaf, by the oath he took "to follow and uphold the laws of this state when the evidence is clear that a violation of the law has occurred, (regardless of) whether the accused is a member of the clergy."

Mark Shields, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group based in Washington, said the charges were the first brought against clergy who performed a same-sex marriage, but referred questions on the issue to the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, another gay rights group. Lambda did not return phone calls.

Yesterday, both ministers stood by their decision to conduct the marriages in a parking lot beside the Wallkill River in New Paltz on March 9, a few days after a state Supreme Court justice blocked village Mayor Jason West from marrying gay couples until the legality of same-sex marriage could be resolved.

West became the second mayor in the United States to perform the same-sex ceremonies when he married 25 couples outside Village Hall on Feb. 27, prompting the court injunction. Williams also has charged West with marrying couples who did not hold marriage licenses, a misdemeanor.

"I want to keep the focus on the couples, because they're the people who marry here," said Sangrey, minister at the Fourth Unitarian Society of Westchester in Mohegan Lake, when reached at her home in Bedford Hills yesterday. "We're trying to simply give these same-sex couples the same right that every other couple takes for granted. Their civil rights are, in my view, being violated by any denial of licenses to marry. So I'm honored to be a part of that effort."

Unitarians and several other religious faiths, including Reform Judaism, have performed same-sex marriages for several years. But Williams said he charged Sangrey and Greenleaf, who is from Poughkeepsie, because the two "have publicly proclaimed their intent to perform civil marriages under the authority vested in them by New York state law, rather than performing purely religious ceremonies." He said the charges focus on the narrow issue of whether the marriages were performed without licenses, not whether same-sex marriage is legal in New York.

Greenleaf said yesterday that the ceremonies she performed in New Paltz last week were both civil and religious, even if the New Paltz town clerk refused to issue the licenses.

Her lawyer, Robert Gottlieb of Long Island, went further.

"The only people who would violate the law would be the government officials who refuse to issue the licenses (to same-sex couples)," Gottlieb said. "So Reverend Sangrey and Reverend Greenleaf have said they refuse to be co-conspirators with those who would violate the constitutional rights of people."

Gottlieb said the two would plead not guilty at their arraignment Monday in New Paltz Town Court. Each charge carries a fine of $25 to $500 or up to a year in jail.

Williams, the district attorney, is investigating whether to bring more charges against Sangrey and Greenleaf for presiding over another round of gay weddings in New Paltz on Saturday, when they joined a third minister to wed an additional 25 gay couples, Williams' secretary said. The ministers have not been barred by court order from performing more gay marriages, as has West, the mayor; and Gottlieb would not say yesterday whether they would participate in what would be a fourth round of gay weddings scheduled for Saturday in New Paltz.

Nevertheless, a group of college students and local businessmen from the area who have organized to support the marriages were looking yesterday for others to perform the marriages.

"We are continuing them this Saturday," said James Fallarino, a SUNY-New Paltz student who is a spokesman for the group. "We have more than enough people who are willing to do it."

Several gay rights groups and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, which represents 900 Reform congregations in North America, denounced the charges against the two ministers yesterday.

Locally, Sandy Bogin, senior rabbi of the Jewish Home and Hospital, which includes the Sarah Neuman Nursing home in Mamaroneck, said the charges are a "violation of our religious rights." Nevertheless, she said, there is a bright side to yesterday's events.

"I've been officiating at same-sex weddings for a number of years," Bogin said. "The civil authorities really weren't involved because they didn't see it as a valid union. So the good news is that now they're taking same-sex relationships seriously enough that they're concerned that they're being solemnized without licenses."

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer issued an advisory opinion on March 3 saying that the state Domestic Relations Law does not allow gay marriage, but also questioned the constitutionality of the ban.