Reform Rabbis Join Push To End North Carolina Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Image by getty images

By JTA June 11, 2014

The Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis joined a lawsuit against North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriages.

The lawsuit, which was filed April 28 by the United Church of Christ and several same-sex couples, alleges that North Carolina’s Amendment One and other state laws make it illegal for clergy to officiate at a same-sex marriage. Other religious groups, including the Baptists and the All Souls Episcopal Cathedral, have joined the suit.

The CCAR is the lone Jewish organization listed as a plaintiff in the case; several individual Reform rabbis are on the list of plaintiffs.

Unlike a suit lodged by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2012 demanding due process of the law, which was stayed on June 2, the current suit contends that the ban on gay marriage is a violation of religious freedom. Amendment One was approved by North Carolina voters in May 2012.

“The CCAR’s support for full civil and religious rights for gays and lesbians is based on the Torah’s assertion that every person is created in God’s image and deserves dignity, equality and respect,” said CCAR President Rabbi Richard Block in a news release.

In 2000, the CCAR expressed its formal support for clergy members officiating at Jewish same-sex weddings. The group offers educational and liturgical resources for rabbis conducting such weddings.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO