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    Marriage Equality Group Talks Successes, Tactics at Town Hall

    Since January, Michael Premo, campaign manager for Why Marriage Matters Ohio, has traveled the state holding town hall meetings on the subject of marriage equality. On Tuesday, he led the second-to-last such town hall at the Why Marriage Matters headquarters in Downtown Columbus.

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    Premo has conducted these community meetings in Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Marietta, Chillicothe and a number of other cities across Ohio. Some crowds are larger, some are smaller, but the discussions have mostly been substantive. The town hall format gives supporters an opportunity to hear about what’s going on with the campaign, said Premo, and it also provides a chance for him to give a few tips on how supporters can engage in conversations with people who might be swayed toward supporting marriage equality.

    “You have to engage from a standpoint of compassion and understanding,” said Premo. “Take people where they are and ask them to walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes.”

    Why Marriage Matters Ohio was founded in September 2013, Premo told the audience, to win marriage equality in the Buckeye State “whether through the courts or the ballot box.” Since then, Premo and his team have seen a nine-point swing in support of same-sex marriage. On top of that, the group now boasts 20,000 volunteers on its side, as well as faith leaders, business owners and elected officials.

    Now that marriage equality has found its way to the courts, Why Marriage Matters’ goal is to keep the conversation alive and highlight the human stories behind the politics.

    “This is not an academic enterprise,” said Premo. “These are real people who have been harmed by the denial of the freedom to marry.”

    Premo discussed three of the most common misconceptions about same-sex marriage that volunteers encounter when talking to people in opposition. The first is that same-sex couples want to get married for different reasons than other couples, such as benefits or finances. Premo wants volunteers to make it clear that LGBT couples want to get married for the same reasons as straight couples.

    “Help them to understand it in very personal terms,” said Premo. “Ask them to imagine how they would feel if they were told they couldn’t marry the person they love.”

    The second misconception is that no real harm is being caused to LGBT couples by being denied the right to marry. Premo scoffed at the oft-repeated argument that civil unions are a comparable substitute.

    “Civil unionized? Sounds like something you’d have done to your car,” said Premo. “There is nothing else. There is no substitute.”

    The final misconception is that marriage equality threatens religious practices. Premo asserted that no clergy member in any state with legal gay marriage has been forced to perform a marriage they didn’t agree with. He further argued that there are churches in Ohio that want to perform same-sex marriages but are legally prevented from practicing their beliefs.

    The support of faith leaders was a frequently mentioned topic at Tuesday’s town hall. Faith leaders are in a unique position to start conversations about marriage equality with their congregations, and interactions with pastors and reverends on the issue are not always what one might expect. Premo told the crowd a story about meeting a Pentecostal minister in Lima, whom Premo assumed would be opposed to marriage equality until the man announced that he would soon be marrying two lesbians.

    At the same time, said Premo, while Catholics overwhelmingly support marriage equality, the Catholic Church has been one institution where little progress has been made in terms of public support. Many times, said Premo, pastors are concerned about what their congregations would think if they made their support public, and supportive congregations likewise fear their pastors will not approve.

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    One faith leader in attendance Tuesday was Lane Campbell, director of religious education at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus. Campbell’s church has long supported LGBT rights, and Campbell herself is a queer faith leader. She came to Tuesday’s town hall to learn more about what she and other religious leaders can do.

    “I was really here to learn more about the tools in our toolbox,” said Campbell, who hopes to gather more personal stories from LGBT members of her congregation, as well as encourage more church members to volunteer. Campbell said she is pleased with the shift among religious institutions in support of marriage equality.

    “I wish the swing was more rapid…It’s nice to see our Presbyterian colleagues come out and take a public stand this year,” said Campbell. “I think that faith leaders talking to other faith leaders is very powerful.”

    Why Marriage Matters Ohio has recruited over 140 faith leaders who have officially signed on as supporters, “and we’re going to be rolling those out in October,” said Premo.

    The last of the town halls will take place in Sandusky next week, after which Premo hopes that as marriage equality is debated in the courts, discussions will continue being started by the volunteers that Why Marriage Matters has recruited and trained throughout the state.

    “We’re asking everybody who supports marriage equality to have those conversations with their friends and family, because that is the single most effective way that we can grow support in Ohio,” said Premo.

    For more information, visit www.whymarriagemattersoh.org.

    For ongoing discussion on same sex marriage in Ohio, CLICK HERE to visit our Messageboard.

     

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    Jesse Bethea
    Jesse Betheahttps://columbusunderground.com
    Jesse Bethea is a freelance features writer at Columbus Underground covering neighborhood issues, economics, science, technology and other topics. He is a graduate from Ohio University, a native of Fairfax, Virginia and a fan of movies, politics and baseball. Jesse is the winner of The Great Novel Contest and the author of Fellow Travellers, available now at all major retailers.
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