I completely agree with the result in this matter (http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/091807nj.htm): once you take public, taxpayer derived funds, you lose the right to discriminate against others based on your religious views. This is the same principal that has lead to the Boy Scouts losing the free use of public taxpayer supported property. If you want to discriminate, do not take public funds or expect public venues to be provide for free:(Trenton, New Jersey) A scenic pavilion on the boardwalk in Ocean Grove, N.J. that refuses to allow same-sex couples to have civil union ceremonies has lost its tax exempt status. The pavilion is owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist group. While it is frequently rented out for marriages, two lesbian couples were turned down when they tried to hold their civil unions there. The association told the couples that the pavilion is a religious structure and the denomination rejects same-sex union ceremonies.
In a letter to the Camp Meeting Association terminating its tax free status Jackson said that "it is clear that the Pavilion is not open to all persons on an equal basis." "The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association has only itself to blame for what will now be the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality. "The question is, how much more hell will the Camp Meeting Association, and its national right-wing extremist backers, put the good people of Ocean Grove through?"
By way of background, the church affilate received significant tax payer assistance in the renovation the pavillion and in order to get tax breaks the pavillion was to be open to use by all members of the public.
