Gay Marriage Pioneer

[KatherineS]

Richard Adams Dead: Gay Marriage Pioneer Married by Rev. Robert Sirico


Richard Adams, who used both the altar and the courtroom to help begin the push for gay marriage four decades before it reached the center of the national consciousness, has died, his attorney said Sunday.
Adams and his partner, Tony Sullivan, were granted a marriage license in 1975, but for years fought in vain to see it recognized by governments.

They were married in Denver by the Rev. Robert Sirico, now head of the conservative Action Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. Their marriage was not recognized by the government. Father Sirico now serves as a spokesman for private market captialism and religious liberty.

 

[Michie]

Prayers for him.

 

[Genersis]

Really sad.
Not too relevant to the current political landscape though, mind you.

 

[KatherineS]

Really sad.
Not too relevant to the current political landscape though, mind you.

Yes. It is interesting how now Father Sirico is a proponent of economic individualism, coming from a background as a gay rights activist supporting sexual individualism.

 

[EDB]

Source please?

 

[EDB]

Only thing I could find was a forum post (on another forum) by someone who boldly proclaims their dislike for EWTN as being too liberal:

EWTN celebrity Father Robert Sirico, who managed to be ordained a priest in the 1980s despite his openly acknowledged and publicly reported past as a "gay Protestant minister," following his apostasy from the Catholic faith of his youth. On April 21, 1975, Sirico "made the annals of 'gay' history as a pioneer 'gay rights' activist when he performed the first same-sex 'marriage' in the United States of two male homosexuals with a civil marriage license at the First Unitarian Church of Denver, Colo."

 

[Michie]

Only thing I could find was a forum post (on another forum) by someone who boldly proclaims their dislike for EWTN as being too liberal:

Figures.

 

[KatherineS]

Look here:

Vital Statistics: More Information

See page 23.

December - 1975 - In Unity

or here:

ChicagoPride.com worldfeed

or here:

The Milwaukee Journal - Google News Archive Search

these and other sources confirm Rev. Sirico's history:


- In 1972 he founded a satellite of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Church (UFMCC) founded by homosexual activist Rev. Troy Perry in Los Angeles.

- In 1975 he moved to Los Angeles to become Executive Director of the Los Angeles Gay Community Center, one of the oldest and largest LGBT organizations in the world.

- In April 1975 he performed the first same-sex marriage in the U.S. at the First Unitarian Church of Denver.

- In 1976 his Los Angeles Gay Community Center ran a "Male Slave Mart" to raise money for the Center's venereal disease clinic.

- In May 1989 the Paulists ordained him, in opposition to the then-standing papal decree that activist homosexuals were not candidates for the priesthood.

- In 1990 he became President of the newly created Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, an "ecumenical, free-market educational think-tank funded by Michigan-based Dutch Calvinist business entrepreneurs".

 

[WarriorAngel]

Oy - i hope he had a change of heart before his death.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

It's important to put " " quotations around "marriage" when dealing with homosexual unions. They are not valid unions and thus don't deserve such stature as to put them up without ""!

 

[Genersis]

It's important to put " " quotations around "marriage" when dealing with homosexual unions. They are not valid unions and thus don't deserve such stature as to put them up without ""!

Protest "" is a funny idea.

I wonder how many other faiths would consider your marriage a "marriage".
I also wonder how many kinds of marriage the Catholic Church would consider a "marriage", but do not give them the same "" treatment.

 

[Wolseley]

I know Fr. Sirico. He was at the Paulist-run Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, MI, when I lived there years ago; I used to attend Mass there when it was a holy day. I met him several times, and I went to confession with him several times.

I personally never had any reservations about Fr. Sirico, but I do remember when he left the Paulists to form his Acton Institute, and I remember thinking it was a decidedly odd thing for a Catholic priest to be doing; I knew nothing about his past, but assuming that the stuff in this thread is accurate, it does help to explain a great deal.

May Christ have mercy on us all, for we have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

 

[KatherineS]

It's important to put " " quotations around "marriage" when dealing with homosexual unions. They are not valid unions and thus don't deserve such stature as to put them up without ""!

Nor are unions valid when a man has left one wife to take another. That is why we should refer to Nancy Reagan as Ronald Reagan's "wife."

 

[QuantaCura]

Was he an "activist homosexual" when ordained? Is he still? It is possible that people can repent/convert.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

How can you be a "pioneer" of something that doesn't exist?

 

[KatherineS]

How can you be a "pioneer" of something that doesn't exist?

Nancy Reagan doesn't exist?

 

[Wolseley]

No, "gay marriage" doesn't exist.

Marriage can only be contracted between one man and one woman.

 

[cathoaholicliz]

Nancy Reagan doesn't exist?

That went zoom right over your head.

People exist. According to many of the posters here gay marriages do no exist.

Marriages can be null and void and the two people in the marriage exist. What you said makes 0 sense.

 

[KatherineS]

No, "gay marriage" doesn't exist.

Marriage can only be contracted between one man and one woman.

And can the contract be terminated and another contract made for the period of time one or both of parties so wills?

 

[KatherineS]

That went zoom right over your head.

People exist. According to many of the posters here gay marriages do no exist.

Marriages can be null and void and the two people in the marriage exist. What you said makes 0 sense.

I see. Your position is that Nancy Reagan exists, just her "marriage" to Ronnie did not. Thank you for that clarification.