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14 - OlTl"l november 2001 VIEWS

“Religion, Sexual Orientation and the

 

BY JADE WOLFE
OITM Staff Writer

The Seventh Annual Alliance Conference was held at the Vermont Law
School in.South Royalton, Vermont. The Alliance is a small, dedicated
group of gay/lesbian students. Program coordinator, Dan Stafford and
Stephanie Tavarez, greeted me as I collected my conference materials.

Entitled “Religion, Sexual Orientation and the Law”, the all day event
featured discussions among three sets of panelists. Professor Susan
Ackerman moderated “What Religion Really says about Homosexuality”;
Sharon Debbage moderated “Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty: Does the’
U.S. Constitution Allow for Both?” and Stephanie Tavarez moderated
“The Impact of Faith—Based Initiatives on the GLBT Community.”
Keynote speaker, Professor David B. Cruz and his partner celebrated
their civil union ceremony prior to the conference. Professor Cruz spoke
about the finer legal points of dis—establishing the religion of gender
within the confines of the United States laws in his keynote address enti-
tled “On Nature Worship and the U.S. Constitution”. “

“At best, religion is the politics of spirituality”. These were my own
words said many times in conversation. Attending an all day conference
focused on religion and law was an interesting challenge for me. My
reactions filtered through as a writer for OITM, former social service
advocate and believer in personal spirituality however best it is nur-
tured. In the space of a minute’s worth of conference dialogue, my sens-
es moved through many layers of thoughts and perceptions. I recalled
my own childhood experiences with religion. The varied aspects of a
fundamentalist upbringing shaped and confined my own awareness as a
spiritual being. At one time I seriously considered a career in law, actu-
ally enjoying the LSAT experience. But I could not get “my, head
wrapped around” the concept of besting your opponents in a “game of
wording” in order to win. Those who can practice law in spite of these
restrictions and people who teach and share _religious practices with
spiritual meaning and good intent have my respect.

In many ways, the institutions of religion and law operate very simi-
larly. There is recognizableecommon ground. Both are highly structured
patriarchal systems. The variances between are eclipsed by the similari-
ty in their organizational hierarchies with the inherent procedural mazes.
These two institutions profess dictums regarding our daily lives. This
alone presents an argument for a separation between ”church and state”.
Individual spirituality, a place within our community, and individual
behavior as it affects the community seem to all work much better when
the church is, indeed, separate from the state.

There is more gray area than solid “separation”. This was illustrate
admirably during the civil union litigation in Vermont. The fear—based
arguments of legislative representatives who are “anti-gay” reach up
from within deep—seated religious dogma. There was hardly any point of
legislation or law ever brought up in the public arena. Though the top-
ics slated for discussion in the panels were obviously emotionally

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77

Law

    

Stephanie Tavarez, one of the Program coordinators of “_Re|igion,eSexual
Orientation and the Law”, is a member of The Alliance, a small, dedicated
group of gay and lesbian students at Vermont Law School.

charged issues, it seemed fitting. After all, the institutions of law and
religion overshadow one another constantly. They also have served as
reciprocal supporters since their establishment. American rhetoric has a
few very .“worn with use” popular battle cries. As I sat through this long
conference the two phrases that moved back and forth in my mind were
“religious freedoms” and “fair and equal protection under the law”.

As was true in the most heated moments of the civil union debates,
the anti-gay proponents in conference attendance here mentioned leg-
islative points of debate as an afterthought, if at all. The discussions
were lively at times. There were over half a dozen “anti-gay” attendees.
Somewhat boisterously “checking in” ahead of me in line, there were
two fundamentalist preachers. And the part of me observing these two
men saw the uncomfortable, furtive glances at me and then around the
room. Here were two narrowly socialized people trying totoperate suc-
cessfully between their religion and their government. O

They must have felt an odd sense of support when the Catholic Priest
presented his portion of panel discussion. The priest read word for word
fromia type written page the church’s non-discrimination of homosexu-
als. Within the body of this declaration we learned that he, himself, was
a non-practicing heterosexual. It would have been hard to miss, since
he stated it not once, not twice, but seven times within less than twelve
minutes. ' t ' .

The legislative representatives remained focused on campaigning and
could not seem to think or listen beyond their self—imposed barriers.
Although valid points regarding actual religious texts were presented,
again only open—minded ears seem to grasp any of the information. The
audience was a small, diverse group.

People moved into small groups to eat throughout the conference
area. There was a dozen oreso anti—gays (their label, not mine) swapping
notes on potential campaign sound-bytes. The tireless law staff hovered
over the lunch crowd to ensure the conference was continuing to “flow
on schedule”. A few sat in clumps of threes and twos but gently migrat-
ed into one larger group for an intimate discussion. One of the presen-
ters, Dr. Rembert Truluck sat with us as we shared thoughts and past
experiences. . p

The conference was important. It was a natural way of continually
educating our selves and those who choose likewise. On Friday, the 5th
we -set aside usual" schedules to meet one another, discussing these
invariably joined institutions. At the very least, The 7th Annual
Cpnference on Sexual Orientation and the Law, reminded everyone of
the delicate lack of neutrality present in the gray areas where law and
religion reside. -

Driving back toward Burlington, the incredible views of a Vermont fall

foliage fit perfectly with the human variances of the day. Fortunately,

the spectacular blending of autumn colors could not be constrained by
individual differences. We might want to step back for a moment and
appreciate the beauty of our human vista. It is there.

Lisa Grigg, D.O.

   

9 North Main Street - Wallingford, VT 05773
802/446-2430 fax: 802/446-6182

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