org, he made it
clear that opponents of same-sex marriage would make no effort to
rein in some of the most egregious offenders, members of the clergy
speaking out in favor of the amendment.

VoteOnMarriage.org's own chairman, Dr. Roberto Miranda, pastor of
Boston's Congregation Lion of Judah, has used some of the most
virulent anti-gay rhetoric around the marriage debate, comparing
same-sex marriage to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and has
described same-sex marriage as part of Satan's war on New England in
the "Master Plan" for reclaiming Massachusetts for Jesus Christ that
is posted on his church's website. Yet Mineau said
VoteOnMarriage.org's call for civility would not extend to Miranda
or his fellow pastors.

"I think it's very difficult to ask ministers to curtail or to curb
their speech when they're speaking to their flock from a theological
perspective and using colorful terms in getting his point across to
his congregation," said Mineau. "I don't believe Roberto has ever
used terms to denigrate any group of people or personal attacks on
anyone, and he is one of the finest gentlemen I've ever worked with.
But certainly we're not going to ask any pastor to change his
theology regarding the issue of homosexuality and same-sex
marriage."

Miranda has hardly been the only offender among clergy supporting
VoteOnMarriage.org's efforts. Bishop Gilbert Thompson, pastor of
Boston's Jubilee Christian Church and president of the Black
Ministerial Alliance, as well as one of the most visible supporters
of the amendment among the clergy, told the Boston Globe in 2004
that "to say there is such a thing as a gay Christian is saying
there's an honest thief." And last October, Georgia's Bishop
Wellington Boone, speaking at the pro-amendment event Liberty Sunday
at Boston's Tremont Temple Baptist Church, organized by the Family
Research Council, repeatedly referred to gay and lesbian people as
"sodomites" and told the crowd, "If God calls homosexuality
abomination, if he calls it a vile affection, if he calls this
wickedness, I can't call it inappropriate behavior." Both Miranda
and Thompson served on the host committee for Liberty Sunday and
spoke at the event.

Mineau said VoteOnMarriage.org believes the most hateful language in
the marriage debate has come not from the lead advocates on either
side but from rank-and-file supporters at events from either side.

"I cannot attribute anything to MassEquality or the Religious
Coalition [for the Freedom to Marry], and again the leadership of
those organizations, I think we have an excellent relationship,"
said Mineau.

He also said he believed even the rank-and-file activists on both
sides have been relatively respectful to each other at each of the
constitutional conventions (ConCons) that have been held at the
State House for the past several years to debate the various
marriage amendments. When asked for examples when he felt same-sex
marriage supporters crossed the line he pointed to the
counter-protestors at the series of rallies VoteOnMarriage.org held
across the state last month urging lawmakers to vote on their
amendment. At each of those events same-sex marriage supporters
staged counter-protests attended by members of local MassEquality
affiliates and supporters of the pro-same-sex marriage group
KnowThyNeighbor.org.

"Where this really came to a head was in the series of rallies we
held in November and December. There were several where the
confrontation was rather over the top in rhetoric and tactics. And
certainly [KnowThyNeighbor.org co-founder] Tom Lang and I have a
cordial relationship, but some of the storm troopers he was
employing in these rallies were intimidating our people. And we have
never counter-rallied at any of your events. We all have freedom of
speech, but if we're going to do it, we should do it in a dignified
manner," said Mineau.

Lang responded to Mineau's characterization of KnowThyNeighbor's
supporters as "stormtroopers" by saying that the Massachusetts
Family Institute president was trying to deflect attention from what
happened at the Worcester rally.

The most high-profile confrontation to take place at
VoteOnMarriage.org's rallies occurred when Catholic Citizenship
President Larry Cirignano, one of the key strategists working to
pass the amendment, allegedly shoved a supporter of same-sex
marriage to the ground after she crossed over into the
VoteOnMarriage.org crowd. The incident was witnessed firsthand by a
reporter from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, who provided a
detailed account of the altercation in his coverage of the rally.
Worcester Police have filed a complaint to bring misdemeanor assault
and battery charges against Cirignano. When Bay Windows first
reported on the incident Mineau said he believed the alleged victim,
a straight woman named Sarah Loy, staged her own fall (see "When
Push Comes To Shove," Dec. 21, 2006).

"The acceptance and celebration of gay marriage has such
revolutionary implications for the human psyche, that it makes
possible and even natural the contemplation of practically every
other moral perversion."

- from VoteOnMarriage.org Chairman Dr. Roberto Miranda's "Master
Plan," a manifesto on how to end same-sex marriage rights

"Is it exaggerated to see prophetic significance in the fact that on
September 11, 2001 Boston served as the point of departure for the
deadly forces that spread so much destruction and havoc in this
nation and all over
the world? What took place at the material level is now being
carried out at the moral and spiritual level, as the virus of
homosexuality and gay marriage begins to spread dramatically all
over this nation and perhaps the world."

- from VoteOnMarriage.org Chairman Dr. Roberto Miranda's "Master
Plan"

"If we don't win this battle the day will come, write it down, the
day will come when they'll walk into your church if you say one
thing wrong, bad about homosexuality. They'll walk into your church
and they'll shut you up and you'll be arrested for a hate crime.
That sounds far, far removed but it's the truth."

- Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association at the
VoteOnMarriage.org-sponsored Liberty Sunday

"One of my passions or avocations in life is history, public policy,
and so unlike a lot of people I understand the deterioration of the
family is a precursor to the loss of strength in society, and ...
the issue of homosexuality is not a particularly new thing. I think
the deconstruction of the family in the last 20 years is in peril
from without, not from within."

- Massachusetts Family Institute cofounder Robert H. Bradley


"What Kris is doing now - calling for dialogue on both sides - is
trying to downplay the lack of a response on their side to what
Larry Cirignnao did to Sarah Loy," Lang said.

Mineau said he envisions the dialogue consisting of a series of
public forums where the leaders of the different organizations on
both sides come together to talk about how to have a more civil
debate. He said VoteOnMarriage.org is still planning out its
proposal for the dialogue and has not yet formally reached out to
same-sex marriage activists.

"We're right at the gestation point of this initiative. We want to
do this, and that's the point that we're at. We have some ideas
where hopefully we can have some constructive forums to discuss, not
necessarily to debate, to discuss, not necessarily the pros and cons
of same-sex marriage but the pros and cons of how the debate should
be conducted on both sides," said Mineau.

For their part, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry
(RCFM) has put out its own call for dialogue, aimed not at
VoteOnMarriage.org but at the most powerful member of the clergy
working to advance the amendment, Catholic Archbishop Sean O'Malley.
Speaking at a Jan. 10 rally organized by the Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project to respond to the altercation in Worcester,
RCFM President the Rev. Anne Fowler, rector of St. John's Episcopal
Church in Jamaica Plain, said the tension around the marriage issue
reminds her of the rancor on both sides of the abortion debate that
preceded John Salvi's 1994 abortion clinic shootings. She praised
then-Gov. William Weld and O'Malley's predecessor, Cardinal Bernard
Law, for responding to the shootings by calling for an end to
extreme rhetoric on both sides of the debate and for a beginning of
dialogue among both sides of the issue to look for common ground.

"Every time we have another constitutional convention on the
question of marriage equality some of the same feelings and some of
the same atmosphere applies, it seems to me," Fowler told the crowd
of about 25 people gathered on Boston Common. "There's the heated
language, there's the hateful rhetoric, there's the threat of
physical violence, and then several weeks ago we saw the actual
episode of physical violence. I have been appealing to Cardinal
O'Malley to meet with the board of RCFM or several of us to talk
about how we can encourage and develop some civil dialogue on this
question of equality."

Fowler said thus far their calls to O'Malley have not been returned.
The Boston Catholic Archdiocese did not return a call to comment for
this story.

Fowler said when anti-gay rhetoric comes from members of the clergy,
it becomes "spiritual violence" against LGBT people, and she called
on O'Malley and other clergy in the marriage debate to end their
anti-gay rhetoric.

Speaking at that same rally, Lang said that he started his
organization to foster debate on the marriage issue, and he said the
group's blogs often feature heated discussions between both
supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage. But he said he does
not believe proponents of the marriage amendment want to engage in
substantive dialogue, and he described the altercation between
Cirignano and Loy as symptomatic of the dismissive attitude
opponents of same-sex marriage have towards their opponents.

"What Larry Cirignano did to Sarah Loy said one thing: that she,
either by perception or reality, was either gay or a supporter of
gay rights, and she was a lesser human being and worthy of that sort
of treatment," Lang told the crowd. "Why would Mr. Cirignano think
otherwise when of course it is the LGBT community which is called
evil, the destroyer of families, that from which we need to protect
children, and of course, as we see now, that from which we need to
protect marriage? And all of this negative speech coming from places
of leadership like the White House, some churches, the media, and
formerly this corner office [referring to former Gov. Mitt Romney]."

Fowler said that while she supports an end to hateful rhetoric on
both sides of the marriage debate, that does not mean that
supporters of same-sex marriage should put aside their anger.

"Anger and violence are not the same thing. Violence is never
healthful or helpful, but anger, righteous holy anger, is a
perfectly correct response to outrage, to oppression, and to
injustice," said Fowler.

C Bay Windows - New England's largest GLBT newspaper 2007