Gay Marriage in New York: The Religious Protections Edition

The State Senate is one vote away from making same-sex marriage legal in New York. Our side needs to sway one (undecided) Republican vote, to make it happen. The legislative session ends on Monday. Making me lose sleep.

It now seems that the undecided Republicans are "concerned about the scope and the depth of protections for religious organizations in the marriage bill.”

Hmm. Surely, they can’t be concerned that clergy will be forced to perform gay marriages. They aren’t now forced to solemnize marriages they are not comfortable performing. So exactly what is this all about? The emphasis is mine:

Conservative religious leaders and representatives of the New York State Catholic Conference made the rounds of the Capitol on Thursday seeking to press their case against the measure.

“We are relaying our very serious concerns to members of the Legislature regarding the religious liberty implications of Governor Cuomo’s bill,” said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the conference. “It should be noted that we will continue to strongly oppose any redefinition of the historic understanding of marriage, regardless of the strength of the religious liberty protections. However, should the bill pass without adequate protection, it will have potentially far-reaching consequences for our ministries, both in terms of contracts to provide services and potentially to challenges to not-for-profit status.”

So, what is it that they want?  Do they want a deal that says when Catholic Charities provides adoption services they can refuse to place children with same-sex couples? Exceptions for organizations like the St. Vincent de Paul Society or Knights of Columbus –  Catholic groups that may or may not be incorporated as a church or other religious organization – to refuse to rent their facilities for gay weddings?

While I believe a lot of this is all smoke and mirrors, I imagine some of the questions (though certainly not the Catholic Charities one in New York State) that might come up are indeed tricky, in the legal sense. Whether or not gay marriage is a reality next week in New York, I would be happy to see some of these peripheral issues litigated anyway. Now is as good a time as any.  It would be really, really, really good for our democracy. It can only help maintain the line separating church and state. Which is always in the spirit of upholding religious liberty.