Legal News

Lesbian minister to be tried in Presbyterian court for performing same-sex marriages

By Richard Binder

Reverend Jane Adams Spahr, a lesbian minister who officiated at more than a dozen same-sex marriages during the brief period of gay marriage legality in California, will be tried Thursday in Presbyterian court for violating her denomination's constitution.

While the Presbyterian constitution doesn't specifically bar same-sex marriage, it does define marriage as "a civil contract between a woman and a man."

Spahr was ordained in 1974, and at the time she was married.  Since coming out in 1978, she has fought for full inclusion of gays and lesbians in Presbyterian life.  She was previously tried in ecclesiastical court in 2006 for officiating at the weddings of two lesbian couples in California.  She was acquitted on a technicality in 2008, but warned to cease and desist. But during the five months that gay marriage was legal in California, Spahr says she married a score or more gay and lesbian couples.

Spahr will be defended by the Rev. Beverly Brewster. JoAn Blackstone is prosecuting the case on behalf of the church.

Full story at LATimes.com.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 24, 2010 (boomark / email).