Civil-union fight leads to federal court suit:Anti-discrimination law is challenged

OCEAN GROVE-New Jersey is attempting to strip the Camp Meeting Association of its rights of free speech and to freely exercise its religion, according to a federal suit that has stirred simmering passions about same-sex civil unions in this beachfront community.The suit maintains that the state's Law Against Discrimination should be declared unconstitutional if it is used to prohibit the association from using its buildings in accordance with its religious beliefs.

The suit was filed electronically Saturday by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund against J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo,director of the state's Division on Civil Rights,in response to an investigation undertaken by the division.The division is looking into charges of discrimination against the association brought by two local same-sex couples for refusing to permit them to hold civil-union ceremonies in the boardwalk pavilion.In the suit,the association asks a federal judge to declare that the state's Law Against Discrimination is unconstitutional "as applied to prohibit the Camp Meeting Association from ensuring that its buildings, facilities and property under its control are used for purposes consistent with its sincerely held religious beliefs."The suit "has to do with the ability of us to advance the mission statement of the association that has been in place for the last 138 years and to make sure it continues for the next 138 years, at least," said the Rev. Scott Hoffman, the association's chief administrative officer.Division spokesman Lee Moore said the division believes the suit was filed prematurely."To date, the Division on Civil Rights has asserted nothing beyond its right to initiate an investigation to determine whether there has been a violation," he said. "By statute, it is the division's duty to investigate any charges of discrimination filed with it, and the agency does so in response to nearly 1,300 formal complaints a year."
2 couples disappointed
Two of the people at the center of the controversy said Monday they are displeased by the association's lawsuit."I'm very disappointed that they're not looking out for the community as a whole," said Harriet Bernstein, who, with her partner, Luisa Paster, were the first to file complaints with the state against the association."I'm very saddened by it," Janice Moore said of the suit. "Certainly, we didn't want this to become an unpleasantry."Moore and her partner, Emily Sonnessa, also were denied permission to use the pavilion and have filed civil-rights complaints against the association.The association maintains that the Methodist Church's Book of Discipline-by which it is ruled-prohibits the use of church structures for ceremonies such as same-sex civil unions. The association has argued that the pavilion, even though located on the boardwalk, is as much a religious building as is the tabernacle.Not so, say supporters of the two couples, including Ed Barocas, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.In a statement, Barocas said that because the association chose to advertise its facilities to the general public "to make money," the association became subject to state public commerce laws barring discrimination.In the suit, the association says the state's threat to have it allow same-sex civil-union ceremonies in the pavilion affects the organization's right to freedom of speech because such approvals would "communicate approval of such "unions' which is inconsistent with the Association's view."

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PS:Gays keep pushing and pushing their agenda every day everywhere.

If I were gay-I wouldn't care about "getting married"That's a nonsense.Since marriage as instituted by God is between a man and a woman-which by the way is the only combination possible that will "naturally produce

offspring"...hello...???-why should gays want to get -of all things-"married"-something that comes from God...???

Well first of all to achieve the same"social status"than heterosexual couples...Thats like trying to fit a triangle in a cube shape....

Second to try to challenge religious institutions,especially christians,try to challenge our very core of beliefs in a futile attempt of getting "EVEN with God...

It's unfortunate we are still today dealing with these things,but now for a long time in our nation we've been accepting more and more lewdness and unnatural stuff to a point that now is PERFECTLY NORMAL that gay couples even "ADOPT"I have a great deal of compassion for gay and transgender people because of all things if there's one thing they are not is GAY.I have a cousin that is gay and we have talked and talked for hours about his life and his feelings and God.I think GAY people are TORMENTED PEOPLE even tough they may say otherwise.I know of their personal struggles for acceptance and fitting in.

Only Jesus can deliver them from this bondage and heal their identity...

Civil Unions...A truly SIGN of the TIMES...

As in the days of Noah...