After Gay Marriage Successes, Activists Look to Build on New Faith Outreach Techniques

By Dan Mercia, CNN - November 30, 2012

It may not sound very powerful, but gay rights activist Debra Peevey said that a two-inch green button played a major role in convincing voters to legalize gay marriage this month in her home state of Washington.

“Another Person of Faith Approves R. 74,” said the button, which refers to the ballot initiative that wound up legalizing gay marriage in Washington.

As faith director for the statewide pro-gay marriage campaign, Washington United for Marriage, Peevey and her team distributed 5,000 of the buttons. They were conversation starters, she said, ways of letting people know they could relate to one another on the intimate level of religion. And that being religious didn’t meant you had to oppose gay marriage. [Read Full Story]

Photo by Minnesota United For All Families

North Carolina preacher doesn't want to wed anyone until all can marry

By Josh Shaffer, News & Observer - August 1, 2011

For 20 years, Pastor Nancy Petty joined happy couples with the same pieces of biblical wisdom: Love is a gift. Love is tough. Love confronts injustice.

Straight or gay, everybody got the same blessing.

But all that time, a knot was twisting inside Petty's heart. Straight couples got a marriage license with her signature in ink. Gay couples got a holy blessing and a certificate with no more legal heft than a will scribbled on a bubble gum wrapper. [Read Full Story]

Photo by John Rottet

Gay marriage bill dead without church exemptions, says state Sen. Greg Ball

New York Daily News - June 6, 2011

By Kenneth Lovett

A state senator who holds a key swing vote on the bill to legalize gay marriage says he does not believe the measure will pass without specific exemptions for religious institutions.

Sen. Greg Ball (R-Putnam) said he delivered that message directly this past week to Gov.Cuomo and his aides. [Read Full Story]

Photo by ball4ny.com

Majority of Americans support gay marriage in poll

Reuters - May 20, 2011

By Alex Dobuzinskis

Fifty-three percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked reversal from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony.

The latest Gallup findings are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognized gay marriage has, in recent months, gained a newfound majority among Americans. [Read Full Story]

On the eve of Valentine's Day, protesters converge on Holy Name

Chicago Tribune - February 13, 2011

By Tara Malone

On the eve of Valentine's Day, Helen Moshak pinned rainbow ribbons to her white knit cap and returned to the Roman Catholic Church she left five years ago, dismayed by its opposition to gay marriage when two of her three children are gay.

The 76-year-old Skokie woman did not step foot inside Holy Name Cathedral, the storied seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. [Read Full Story]

Photo credit - flikr: zol87