George W. Bush is invoking God's name in his anti-gay crusade against same-sex marriages
Reverend Troy D. Perry is a veteran human rights activist and Founder of Metropolitan Community Churches, the world's largest and oldest church group with a primary, affirming ministry to the LGBT communities. Perry was the first openly gay member of the Los Angeles Human Rights Commission and a past delegate to the White House Conference on Hate Crimes. In 1969, Rev. Perry performed the first same-sex church wedding in the U.S. and in 1970 filed the first-ever lawsuit in California seeking legal recognition of gay marriage. In July 2003, Rev. Perry and Phillip Ray De Blieck, his partner of 18 years, were married under Canadian law.
With his endorsement of an anti-gay Constitutional amendment, President George Bush fired the opening shot in a new culture war. This new war -- launched ironically by the President who promised to be a "uniter, not a divider" -- has not only divided the larger culture, but has also created a divide between faith groups.
Fundamentalist and conservative religious groups have become the foot soldiers in this new culture war -- a war in which LGBT families are the declared enemy.
How did this happen -- after four decades of struggle, advancement, and activism for our civil rights? It's happened in part because the President has blurred the lines that separate church and state. (By the way, let me make a disclaimer: I am a strong believer in freedom of religion for LGBT people who wish to follow a spiritual path -- and in freedom from religion for those who do not.)
http://www.gaytoday.com/viewpoint/060704vp.asp