South Jersey Reacts to Supreme Court Rulings on Gay Marriage

Reporting and writing by Matt Skoufalos, with contributions from Bryan Littel.    

With the Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, gay rights advocates throughout the country are celebrating the verdict that they say has moved same-sex couples closer to equality in the eyes of the law. 

Linda Murphy of the group Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG) Collingswood, which supports the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (GLBTQ) residents in the area, as well as their friends and families, said she was “absolutely thrilled” at the outcome of the ruling. 

“As a parent of a gay child, I feel people are people,” Murphy said. “They love the same, they work the same; everything is the same.”

Murphy said it's important for Americans "to understand that equality should be afforded to all." She hopes the ruling will help average people recognize the significance of the gay rights struggle.

“Once you get the backing of your nation, of your government, people will start to realize, ‘Wait a minute, there’s something that I’m missing here.’”

The Supreme Court decision has helped by lending its cultural weight to the national conversation, she said.

“When you grow up in a society where religious belief has told you that these people are substandard, immoral, it comes with an overwhelming sense of emotion,” Murphy said. “You have society’s feelings that you’ve been raised with that you have to let go.

Even with the backing of the Supreme Court, Murphy says, groups like PFLAG still provide a necessary community service for parents of GLBTQ children.

“To realize that it is okay to be gay, it just takes a weight off and allows you to move forward with your life,” she said.

Clergy split on DOMA, Prop 8 decisions

Local religious leaders were divided over the Supreme Court rulings, primarily along the lines that had already been drawn well before both cases landed at the high court.

For Rabbi Micha Peltz of Temple Beth Sholom, it was a welcome sign from the government.

“I was very glad to see the ruling this morning,” he said. “Everybody has their right to live as they want to live.”

There isn’t a singular view from the Jewish community on the issue of gay marriage, though. The conservative and reform movements—represented locally in Temple Beth Sholom, Temple Emanuel and M’kor Shalom—allow their rabbis the choice as to whether to perform same-sex ceremonies, while the orthodox movement bans it.

While there are some gay couples at Temple Beth Sholom, Peltz said, the temple has only held baby-naming ceremonies for the children of those couples to this point.

“We haven't had the opportunity to perform a same-sex ceremony,” he said.

Catholics, meanwhile, stood steadfast against the idea of gay marriage. Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, head of the Diocese of Camden, deferred to the National Council of Catholic Bishops, which put out a statement from its president, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, decrying the ruling as “a tragic day for marriage and our nation.”

“The Supreme Court has dealt a profound injustice to the American people by striking down in part the federal Defense of Marriage Act,” Dolan and Cordileone said in the statement. “The court got it wrong.”

The bishops said the truth is marriage is between one man and one woman, and said the federal government should’ve recognized that.

“The common good of all, especially our children, depends upon a society that strives to uphold the truth of marriage,” they said. “These decisions are part of a public debate of great consequence. The future of marriage and the well-being of our society hang in the balance.”

“Now is the time to strengthen marriage, not redefine it.”