From California-The congregation cheered.
When Barbara Brecher and Terry Allen married in June 2008, during the brief window that year when same-sex marriage was legal in California, they asked the entire membership of Congregation B'nai Israel to witness the ceremony. Hundreds of congregants took them up on the invitation.
Senior rabbi Mona Alfi, a longtime supporter of same-sex unions, pronounced the couple legally wed, and the congregation erupted in applause.
"People went nuts," said Barbara Allen-Brecher, now 57, an administrative law judge. "They were hooting and hollering. Did I cry? Oh, of course."
What it meant to her to marry within her faith – not just in the eyes of the state but also the eyes of her congregation – is simple: It meant everything.
"I couldn't imagine not doing it that way," she said. "I can't express the joy we experienced having the opportunity to do it in the sanctuary."
Gay and lesbian couples can legally marry today in 13 states, including California. But if they want to marry within their faith, like Barbara and Terry Allen-Brecher, options vary widely from denomination to denomination across the religious spectrum.
From the viewpoint of America's religious institutions, the U.S. Supreme Court's recent landmark decisions on the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 changed nothing.
Read more here:
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/13/5645493/gays-are-not-guaranteed-the-right.html#storylink=cpy
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