Brief Explores Looming Conflicts between Same-Sex Marriage, Religious LibertyAug 2, 2007 The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an amicus brief with the Rhode Island Supreme Court in the case of Chambers v. Ormiston, which asks whether a Rhode Island court can hear a divorce petition from a same-sex couple that was married in Massachusetts. The Becket Fund’s brief explains how the associational rights of religious institutions are necessarily affected by a change in the legal definition of marriage. You can read the brief in its entirety by clicking on this link. “The Becket Fund represents clients on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue, and remains focused on religious freedom issues, so it does not take a position on same-sex marriage as such,” says Anthony Picarello, Vice President & General Counsel for the Becket Fund. “But it is increasingly important to recognize the religious freedom conflicts that legalizing same-sex marriage will generate -- like the conflicts that laws against sexual-orientation discrimination already generate, but on a much larger scale, because the legal term 'marriage' pervades the law." “This is not about religious institutions being forced to marry gay couples -- no one views that as likely -- but instead about preserving the right of religious institutions to stay true to their message and identity, especially when that message is controversial,” says Roger T. Severino, Legal Counsel at the Becket Fund. “Just as the Democratic Party need not accept Republican members, a mosque, synagogue, or church that does not believe in same-sex marriage should not be forced to hire staff that publicly rejects its position on sexual morality.” The brief discusses how religious institutions that oppose same-sex unions would be affected in Rhode Island if same-sex marriage became the law. It asks whether a religious marital counseling program would have to extend services to same-sex couples; whether a religious employer would have to extend spousal insurance benefits to same-sex spouses; or whether a religious university would have to extend subsidized marital housing to same-sex couples. The Becket Fund has filed amicus curiae briefs asking courts to consider these implications in same-sex marriage cases in Iowa, Maryland, and Connecticut. In December 2005, the Becket Fund sponsored a conference on same-sex marriage and religious liberty. Some of the country’s leading First Amendment scholars -- who represent a wide range of religious and political views, including on same-sex marriage -- were invited to assess the religious freedom impacts of legalized same-sex marriage. All of the experts at the conference recognized that legalized same-sex marriage would generate significant religious freedom disputes, but they differed on who should win those disputes and why. Read more about the conference here and here. Resources & Documents
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