In my most recent long post above, I mentioned that the church that adopted, along with an increasing number of main-line Christian churches, the "Affirmation of Welcome" (which I quoted) have married at least four same-sex couples so far. Perhaps more, but these are the ones I am aware of.

One of the couples, married some years ago, I describe in this post, above:    CLICKY.   They adopted two boys from a Chinese orphanage, and these two lads are thriving. The oldest is one of the church's acolytes. And as I mentioned in the post cited, the two boys are leading far better lives now than they could have looked forward to had they been left in the Chinese orphanage.

Another same-sex couple married in the church are taking another route to becoming parents. Wanting biological children of their own, they found a woman (a friend) who is willing to act as a surrogate mother (this is not as rare as you might think). She has already born one child, fathered (in vitro fertilization) by "Jim," one of the men. Their first-born is now a lively and alert toddler. She is currently pregnant by "Rick" (also in vitro), and the ultrasound shows that she is going to deliver triplets! "Jim" and "Rick" are just a bit stunned. But ecstatic. By the way, they, like the men who adopted the two boys from a Chinese orpanage, are prominent attorneys in the area, and one of them is quite active in local politics.

Let me parse the relationship between the children of "Jim" and "Rick" for those who are easily bewildered:   The triplets, fathered by "Rick," will be full brothers and/or sisters (I don't know if their genders are known yet—we're still absorbing the fact that they are triplets). The firstborn, fathered by "Jim" will be a half-brother. Same mother, different father.

No sweat. Nothing really unusual about that.

With both of these couples, they are "out of the closet." They have a wide range of friends. Their own families (mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, etc.) are perfectly accepting of their life style, as are most people who know them. The other married couples (heterosexual) in their church regard them as just two more married couples—with children.

By the way, as far as this church is concerned, the proportion of "gays" and "straights" in the congregation reflect the proportion of the local population at large, so demographically, there is little difference between this church and most other main-line churches—save for the fact that the congregation consists largely of young married urban professionals. It is not a "gay church."

This is a microcosm that demonstrates how mellow things could be, were it not for those unhappy souls who get all bent out of shape over someone else's life style (which, of course, is none of their business) and want to limit the civil rights of those whose lifestyles they disapprove of.

Don Firth