Cleveland's newly passed gay domestic
partner registry is being challenged by a group of religious leaders
who say they will ask voters to decide the issue, reports gay
bi-weekly The Gay People's Chronicle.
Before city leaders approved the
registry at a Monday December 8 session, members of United Pastors in
Mission, a group of mostly black ministers, were hard at work
courting key lawmakers to vote against the non-binding measure.
Councilman Kevin Conwell said that he received “more than 70 calls
[against it] over the weekend.”
All of the seven lawmakers who voted
against the measure were black. Ward 1 councilman Terrell Pruitt
admitted he was pressured to vote against the registry: “I couldn't
risk having the ministers, who don't have all the facts, on the
pulpits preaching against me on Sunday.”
Cleveland's domestic partner registry
allows gay and straight couples to seek recognition of their union
from the city. Ohio passed one of the toughest gay marriage bans in
the country four years ago. To ensure that the registry does not run
afoul of the state's prohibition it lacks any force of law and
guarantees no protections whatsoever. Any benefits given to couples
would be strictly voluntary.
Sue Doerfer, executive director of the
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Greater
Cleveland, told Cleveland's Plain Dealer that a registry gives
gay and lesbian couples a sense of legitimacy when seeking out rights
and benefits from an employer or agency.
Some gay activists believe registries
can be used as a powerful educational tool.
“It is possible that domestic
partnerships, civil unions and other recognition can be used to
educate voters about the rights and benefits that have been stripped
away from so many people because of those amendments,” Steve Ralls,
director of communications for Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), told On Top Magazine.
Despite its limited use, opponents of
the registry say they cannot abide it.
Headed by president Rev. C. Jay
Matthews of the Mount Sinai Baptist Church and director Rev. Marvin
McMickle of Antioch Baptist Church, the group has announced they
would seek to nullify the registry at the ballot box.
The group has 40 days to organize a
referendum that would stop the registry from taking effect. It
requires 10,228 signatures (10% of voters) and would trigger a
special election that would decide its fate.
A less restrictive path to the ballot box would allow
the registry to take effect, but is not subject to the 40-day rule
and only requires 5,000 signatures.
Matthews said the group would press
ahead with plans to nullify the registry, but did not elaborate on
their plans.