Special to The Examiner
If the District moves forward in passing same-sex marriage legislation, the bill will likely include language protecting religious liberty — if precedents in other states apply.
“Churches have the right to do things that the rest of the world regards as discrimination,” said Mark Graber, a law professor at the University of Maryland. “Someone will try to bring suit” against a religious institution in defense of their sexual preference, “But I don’t think it is likely to be successful,” he said.
New Hampshire was all set last week to become the sixth state in the United States to legalize gay marriage, but the governor refused to sign the bill until language protecting religious liberty was added.
“He wanted to have churches — Catholics or Protestants — opposed to same-sex marriage not to be required to perform the ceremony; nor would anyone with so-called philosophical differences be required to participate in any kind of ceremony dealing with a same-gender marriage,” said New Hampshire state Rep. Tony DiFruscia.
The governor expanded the definition of “participate” to excuse religious organizations from employment and housing anti-discrimination laws, he said. DiFruscia, a Republican who previously supported same-sex marriage bills, did not support this one.
New Hampshire’s House rejected the governor’s language, and now a House-Senate committee is charged with reaching a compromise in the next few days.
The political banter over language in New Hampshire’s same-sex marriage bill might be on the District’s horizon.
“It all depends on how religious groups respond,” said the University of Maryland’s Graber. Religious groups that provide nonfaith-related services could be open to prosecution if they discriminate against same-sex couples, he said. And if the District provides funding for certain activities that a church against gay marriage is involved in, the state has a right to deny that church’s funding.
But Graber said the First Amendment would continue to protect pastors from hate crime prosecutions for sermons against homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
“Will someone try [to bring suit]? Of course,” Graber said. “But we leave religious rhetoric alone. What the pastor says in the church is protected.”
But outside the church, he said, pastors are subject to the same laws as everyone else.
