Washington National Cathedral to Host Same-Sex Weddings

The landmark church is the site of inauguration prayer services and presidential funerals

Same-sex couples are about to get quite a wedding venue.

The Washington National Cathedral, a landmark in the nation's capital where prayer services for inaugurations and presidential funerals are held, will soon start hosting same-sex weddings.

The massive gothic-style church will be one of the first Episcopal congregations to use a new rite of marriage for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members, the Associated Press reports.

The decision to perform same sex weddings at the 106-year-old National Cathedral, a destination for half a million tourists a year, holds symbolic value at a time when the issue is gaining traction politically. So far, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized same sex marriage.

"It's something for us to say we are going to do this in this very visible space where we pray for the president and where we bury leaders," Rev. Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral told the Washington Post. "This national spiritual space is now a place where [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people can come and get married."

Via the Associated Press and the Washington Post

Do you think the National Cathedral's decision to host same-sex weddings will be influential?

[DARSB]

This decision should, at the least, help mainstream gay marriage in our collective consciousness while at the same time boosting fundraising for hate groups like the Family Research Council, NOM, and Focus on the Family. Win-Win looks like to me.

[thejimbo]

Well there you have it folks!

Gay and Lesbian weddings in the National Cathedral.

This will be a painful bitter pill to swallow for the miserable 'Family Research Council'

I say, "Tough Cookies ...... stop your hate campaign and join America's diversity!"

[OhWiseOne]

I doubt it. Most people still see homosexuality as the sickness it is.

[falco_alba]

You're so right. That's why gay marriage initiatives failed 4 times at the ballot box this November. Oh wait...

[woodtick57]

No, they really don't. The people of this generation that still think like that will be called by their rightful name in history...

[OhWiseOne]

@falco_alba How many times did it fail in California? That's why they took it to the courts. Believe it or not, most people still view homosexuality as a mental disorder and a sickness. Truth.

[falco_alba]

@OhWiseOne It failed twice by ballot and has subsequently succeeded three times judicially. That does not change the fact that it passed by ballot in 3 states in 2012. Believe it or not, most people do NOT see it as a mental disorder or a sickness. That includes all reputable psychological, psychiatric, and medical associations across America and internationally. Check your polls again.

[Mogal]

@OhWiseOne -Only the unenlightened ones view it as a mental disorder and a sickness.
Oh, and spare me the drivel about the AMA declassifying it, medicine is an ever-evolving science.

[RobertJHarsh]

HA! So much for the churches sticking with their own user guide (the bible). Religion is the ultimate organization of hypocracy! So glad I am an atheist.

[tomincali]

only those that do like the above. others stay by the book something those that cave must not have ever been from the book. just like those who believe it is right stick to theirs those who believe it is wrong should stick to theirs. not all can agree on all things and there is no reason to attack those who disagree.

[Mogal]

What a great idea!

[bsking]

Yeah they might as well use it or gay weddings ... this administration has no use for a Cathedral.

[mimi57]

I was thinking more along the lines of RuPaul... LOL

[bsking]

@mimi57 how is that thing still around?

[bsking]

@mimi57 Dennis Rodman

[mimi57]

@bsking I don't know, I'll have to google it...I think so.

[mimi57]

@bsking Yes, he's still 'dragging around'. LOL

[bsking]

Maybe they can get Will Ferrell to do the honors

[mimi57]

Really?....I was thinking more along the lines of RuPaul..Sooo fitting, although he/she is getting pretty old.(:

[Enslaved]

Who cares, Marrige is pretty much meaningless in America now anyway.

Once Americans give up their freedoms and finally taste the tyranny that left wing policies have perpetrated throughout the world, then words like Freedom and Marrige might once again hold some value.

History is littered with hundreds of millions of human corpses that have suffered from democrats, errr uhm I mean leftist governments throughout the twentieth century.

Why is it that Leftist governments demand atheism? Why is it so much easier to enslave an atheist population than one with freedom of religious freedom.

America will fall like an over ripe fruit, And it will do so at the behest of its own citizens.

[woodtick57]

What does SSM have to do with atheism?

[Enslaved]

I am a Buddhist not a Christian, and to answer that would take more than 4000 characters. Homosexuality while a natural condition is a dead end. Why does nature preclude Homosexuals from procreation? Sounds rather unfair to me. Religion is tied to a human's soul and being answerable to your creator binds the human into a covenant. It is that covenant that is at odds with homosexuality. It's only fake equality when homosexuals call their union, Marrige. Nature knows better.

[woodtick57]

@Enslaved

Well, this soul you speak of is a myth. never proven to exist. just like all the basis for religions.

perhaps you should study human procreation a little more...heterosexual couples have been making homosexuals since the recorded history of man,(so one should infer since the beginning of man, unless writting created homosexuality...)
there will always be homosexuals, as they are a normal, natural part of the human species...

[Enslaved]

You can't measure the quality of a piece of art, but surely the quality of art has to be more than subjective. Just because you may look at a piece of art and not like it, that doesn't mean there isn't quality in it. Yet there is no device capable of measuring quality. We can measure qualities, but there is no device that can measure quality. So quality is not Objective and its not Subjective, so what is it? A belief in an unproven is the foundation of faith. If the soul was proven there would be no need for faith. The fact that you don't believe you are answerable for what you do here, after you die, is just another in a string of explanatikns for why Kids get shoot up at schools.

The statistical number of homosexuals to heterosexuals has always been overstated to give homosexuals more importance, but the fact is a homosexual is an aberration of nature and nature allows for no way of creating more, unless a heterosexual couple produces another mistake. Homosexuality is no different than trisomy-21, or the myriad of other birth defects that have a statistical basis.

I'm not saying homosexuality is wrong, but it is an anomaly in nature.

[woodtick57]

@Enslaved

Wow!

Yes, quality can be measured. there are many, many metrics we can quilify it with. the brush strokes of one of my paintings are not nearly close to the quality of the Cabot I have in my living room...any one would tell you so...

funyy you should mention this, vbut people that do not believe in the myth of the soul tend to be more moral than those that do.

Again homosexuality is a normal, natural part of the human species. not an aberration or defect at all...

[DerivePI]

Are we celebrating the occasion or the defeat of episcopal church?

[woodtick57]

that;s kind of an internal destruction, isn't it?

[woodtick57]

That's kind of an internal destruction, isn't it?

[Vance1]

same-sex weddings? whats next Man and Dog!! This is indeed the moral downfall and shameful to most Americans

[woodtick57]

Dogs are not allowed to enter into legal, binding contracts like marriage...

[Vance1]

@woodtick57
dont worry, people like you will request that to change

[woodtick57]

@Vance1

You are the one that seems to have the fixation on bestiality, not me...

[DARSB]

Just when I was getting all nostalgic for Ric Santorum you bring up his Man On Dog remark. Thanks. http://goo.gl/QwFss

[woodtick57]

@DARSB

That was the level of his discourse, wan't it...Sad that someone like that could make it so far in US politics...he was the #2 man for the GOP. another sign of how far they efallen.....

[TheAtheist]

Good for that church! Normally a church is the biggest hate group for homosexual community and it's about time they stand up for human rights and not bigotry. Marriage is and never was a religious thing and it's about time all churches and a people comprehend that.

[jessejaymes]

Among the 17 Issues that Politix lists as subject to discussion they list "gay rights" as number 4. Civil liberties (where gay rights belong) is yet another category and listed as number one. For some reason Politix thinks gay rights are more important than gun, abortion, education, the environment, foreign policy, government, immigration, health care, race and religion to this country. I think that qualifies as an agenda.

[woodtick57]

Good for them...

[Speedieg]

I think you made your own point. We should have equal rights for all, how can we begin to solve our problems and issues if we can't even treat each other equally and do not have access to the same rights and benefits?

[jessejaymes]

@Speedieg Name one time in this country that we have had access to the same rights and benefits that Barney Frank had in congress? Are you aware that he (among many others non gay) cashed hot checks at the Senate Bank and nobody every said a word about it. Equality is not a matter of sexuality or gender or religion or age or anything else but a matter of everyone in every situation having the same rules as everyone else. That's never happened in this country and it won't. Hasn't happened anywhere in recorded history.

[Speedieg]

@jessejaymes I'm not sure what Barney Franks illegal activity has to do with gay marriage. We do have equality with regard to Gender, Religion, Race and Natnal Origin but not sexual identity. I realize you have negative feelings in this area but you can not condemn an entire group based on the acts of a few or the one.

[jessejaymes]

@Speedieg That was not my point and I really do wish people would stop being professional victims. My point is that while some leftists think a perfect world is possible I say we do not have equality in this country because the ultra rich and their bought and paid for ruling class congress have so much more and so many more rights than the average person that to talk of across the board equality is laughable. Franks was NOT regulated to a lower standard than his heterosexual peers in Congress. He was just as corrupt (And Dodd-Frank contributed to the housing collapse) as any of the straights. He was not turned away at the senate bank because he was gay. He was not shunned by his fellow corrupt congresspeople because he was gay. THAT IS MY POINT. I don't understand how it is that the left can constantly make out like it's because someone is "gay" or "black" or "not heterosexual white male" that they don't have equality. If you have MONEY you have equality in this country. If you hold high office you have equality. If you are someone the public holds to a higher standard you have equality. Barney Franks doesn't have a less retirement or medical package because he is gay. He doesn't have ANYTHING less than ANYONE that served in Congress. It is what it is. A land of the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Sexual orientation only matters to the peasants as something to argue about. It damn sure didn't hold back Barney Frank. Did you ever consider that maybe you're not a famous person because you don't have it in you to be famous? I had to come to that conclusion many years ago. I'm not intelligent enough to be Bill Gates. I'm not slick enough to be Bill Clinton, I'm good looking enough to Brad Pitt and I can't act well enough to be Denzel Washington. Things are not as simple as some of you want them to be. There is no great anti gay conspiracy holding you back today. You are winning the debate. The right will do what the right always does with change. Bitch about it. But they have lost and it's time to get over the victim mentality. You'll have some problems in the bible belt but EVERYONE not just like them has problems in the bible belt. Suck it up. You're winning. Stop sniveling and stop whining and stop taunting and then playing victim. Being gay doesn't mean you are anything special anymore than it means I am. Rulers rule and the rest don't. Barney Frank had it in him to manipulate himself into a position of power. And it didn't matter that he is gay. And he has a whole lot more "equality" than I do. Stop the constant playing victim.

[methinks]

Not to nitpick with the author, but the cathedral was completed September 28, 1990, so that makes it 22 years old now. The cornerstone was laid in 1907, using the same mallet that George Washington used to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol Building.

[Sillpchs]

I am 100% for gay marriage, but I think having them married in a church is almost a slap in the face to religion.

[Keyjo]

It's always good when an institution in Washington, D.C. sets a good example for the rest of the Country.

[Nitro]

I am a Christian and I believe the Bible is Gods words to us.I find in the Bible the words Homosexuality amongst many other sin will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. If you're a Christian you cant take part of the Bible and believe that and throw out the parts that rub you wrong. If you're not a Christian then your on your own. I think that Guy marriage should never take place in a Church of God. I don't agree with Gay marriage at all, God Made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. The moral decay this USA is going through will bring us down as a Nation. We will be turned over to a reprobate mind and God will send us to hell for out actions.

[azumi]

If they decide to host same-sex marriage, then that church isn't of God. Clearly in the Bible, in many passages God is against same-sex anything. He says it's not natural and that's not how he made us. That so called "church" needs to change there name and call it something else. The people who work in that church or the pastor clearly aren't truly followers of Christ Jesus. If you truly love and follow the Lord & read upon his word, you will believe and obey all of his commands.

[ConserveUSA]

I keep waking up to a nightmares.