Refusing to allow gay couples to hold civil unions in a boardwalk pavilion has cost a Methodist church group in Monmouth County, NJ its state tax exemption for the property.
The state Department of Environmental Protection on Monday stripped the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association of a property tax exemption for the boardwalk pavilion because the group refuses to make it equally available to all people , a requirement for tax exemption under state law.
The pavilion is at the heart of a dispute between gay groups, who want the right to hold civil unions there, and the church group, which says the state is trying to force it to violate deeply held religious beliefs.
The Camp Meeting Association has filed a federal lawsuit against the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, saying the association's right to religious freedom would be violated by being forced to sanction same-sex unions.
On Sunday, one of two lesbian couples who are suing the association held a civil union ceremony a few hundred feet from the pavilion. Nothing like mocking marriage for good photo op......
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