|
Gay couple sues over
site for civil union
By BILL BOWMAN,
thnt.com Online, June 21, 2007
OCEAN GROVE -- A same-sex
couple has filed a civil-rights complaint against the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Association, claiming it discriminated against them by denying their request to
hold their civil-union ceremony in the boardwalk pavilion.
The complaint is the first filed over a disputed public accommodation since
civil unions were recognized in the state earlier this year, said Frank
Vespa-Papaleo, chairman of the state Division on Civil Rights.
Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster of Broadway in Ocean Grove contend they were
refused permission in March to hold their ceremony, scheduled Sept. 30.
The Camp Meeting Association is a Methodist ministry that owns all the land and
boardwalk in the oceanfront enclave that is now part of Neptune.
Bernstein, 65, who has lived in the Grove for 7 1/2 years with Paster, 59, said
the complaint "was not the course of action we really wanted to take."
|
