NEW! OGU Video Clips on YouTube
from "Labor Day 2007"
Click Here!
NJ Division of Civil Rights Complainants Interviewed on NPR
Later that day, the Pavilion controversy was discussed again during NPR's 'Talk
of the Nation' segment: Listen
Here.
Who
Needs A Pavilion Anyway?
OGU supporters Rev. Julie Parker, Harriet Bernstein, Luisa Paster, Rev.
Bill Crawford, Jan Moore, Emily Sonnessa and Rev. David Parker at the pavilion.
The Boardwalk Pavilion Controversy
The Ocean Grove boardwalk pavilion has been used as
a public space for decades. Bands play there. Children skateboard through it.
Tourists enjoy the shade. It's even been used for debates and Civil War re-enactments.
Yet this widely-used open space is now closed to same-sex couples wishing to
hold civil union ceremonies there.
The group making this determination is the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association
(OGCMA), a Methodist organization that owns all of the property in Ocean Grove.
The organization maintains that its discretion to disallow civil unions within
Methodist churches extends to the boardwalk pavilion in Ocean Grove. In other
words, the OGCMA considers the public pavilion part of its church.
The OGCMA's decision is in direct defiance of recent New Jersey state legislation
and a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling recognizing same-sex couples and granting
legal status to civil unions. Further, given the multiple civic and religious
uses of the pavilion, the space is considered a place of public accommodation
under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. In accordance with the law,
same-sex couples are entitled to use the pavilion for civil union ceremonies.
A group of concerned Ocean Grove citizens — both gay and straight —
have formed Ocean Grove United, in light of these events, to ensure the civil
rights of all members of the Ocean Grove community.
Join Our Email List:
