Street roots
M arch 14, 2014
LLI zää J c J
3
s by
Jackie
The Portland resident is rallying Catholics to defend
the rights o f gay Oregonians to marry, despite an
opposing campaign from the local Archdiocese
BY ISRAEL BAYER
STAFF W R IT E R
acide Yerby and community advocates,
along with a group of Catholic
Oregonians, are leading a campaign to
a
| port marriage equality in Oregon. The
;
group titled Catholic Oregonians for
Marriage Equality was developed in
response to Portland Archbishop Alexander
K. Sample’s public support opposing same-
sex marriages in Oregon. Street Roots
recently sat down with Yerby to discuss the
new group.
Is ra e l B ayer: Why didyou.start or feel
important to be a part of Catholic Oregonians
for Marriage Equality?
Ja c k ie Yerby: To me it boils down to two
words: love and justice. I am a practicing,
faithful, faith-filled Catholic. How I move
through the world, and the way I try to live
my faith is grounded in love. So when I
think about my LGBT brothers and sisters,. I
Teel like making sure that they have the
freedom to m arry is acting out of that sense
of love as well as a sense of justice.
The other word I would add is resp ect
Right, we’re Catholic, despite everything,
we’re Catholic. We wanted to make sure that
our witness going to Ash Wednesday mass
was respectful. ... It’s like being a public -
witness to other Catholics to say we exist
and it’s for people who might feel isolated in
their parishes and to say ‘Hey, you’re not in
alone in this.” There are other people who
support the freedom to marry for our LGBT
brothers and sisters. And a witness to the
broader community who tend to think of the
Catholic Church and Catholics as being in
this kind of monolith that we think and act
alike, that'we can take direction. To say, no,
actually there’s a different perspective here.
I.B.: A March 2013 New York Times poll
found that 62 percent o f US Catholics support
marriage for same-sex couples. And Pope
Francis has hinted that the Church could .
eventually accept some forms o f sam^ sex ^
unions, A t the same time, you have an
Archbishop here who has instructed his staff to
work against any such initiative, calling it a
top priority. Nationwide, thefJ.S. bishops have
been advocating against it and even calling for
a Constitutional amendment. How do you
rectify such divergence within the structure o f
the Church?
J.Y.: There was a Quinnipiac poll that
came out, L think in October, that talked
.about how it was a similar percentage of
Catholics, so more Catholics than the
general public support the freedom to
marry. Then we have this great new pope
that many of us are excited about who in
addition to saying, “Who am I to judge” has
also said there is place for civil union, which
is progress. It’s not marriage, but it’s
progress. Then people have asked me, if
Pope Francis is here, where are the
bishops? While a lot of the bishbps and
much of Church leadership have come up
under more" conservative popes, who were
really calling for “a tighter, leaner, more
obedient flock,” Pope Francis seems to be
saying all are welcome and let’s make sure
we’re about love and that we’re focused on
issues around poverty, and less emphasis on
the things that divide us like issues of
sexuality and abortion.
UR.-. Do you foresee a day when the Vaticqn
recognizes and even embraces these unions?
J.Y.: When the Vatican or the Church
hierarchy? I think about my experience -
within my own parish where there are |
openly gay people, where there are gay
couples, where th ere are married gay folks
who are raising children, and .they are active
in the parish in different rples, leadership
roles. So, at that level, at the level that
counts, at least in my parish, and I can think
of a few others around town, fully accepted,
fully embraced, fully loved and welcomed.
I.B.: B u t in a lot o f other areas o f the world,
that’s not the case.
' J.Y.: Yeah, which is unfortunate. The
other thing I’ll say about that is “fast.” A
priest friend told me that “fast” in the
Gatholic Ghurch is you ask a question on
Wednesday and they get back to you in 200
years. ,
I. B.: From yoyir personal observation, what
do y ou see as the damage done when the
Church takes this position?
J. Y.: I have a couple of friends who used
to be active members of my parish, regular
members, one of which actually had a
leadership role in the parish. She’s no
longer a member. I don’t think it has to do
with my church, but more because of the
Church and just the language that it has
used in term s of talking about LGBT folks.
Another friend now goes to an Episcopal §.
church. Part of it was that the Episcopal
church had a lot more programming for kids
and he has a teenage son. And part of it was
that he was really sick of the homophobia of
the Catholic Church. That was really hurtful.
I remember talking to my friend, the one
who goes to the Episcopal church, saying
“Well, that’s not us. That’s not our
community.” And he also has a really good
friend that’s a; gay Catholic priest, but it was
just kind of too much. Under Pope Benedict,
and it wasn’t that long ago, the language
used to describe homosexuality was like
“intrinsically disordered,” m other words the
word “disordered” is in there.
P H O T O BY JO A N N E ZU H L
this is nonviolence just in term s of how we
engage with each other, how we engage
with other people, how we engage with the
institutional Church. I’m sure that we would
be perceived by other people as defiant....
Are we worried? I’m not. I think intorni§'oi
the kinds of things that came up, some
■pe,nple..are. worried^about^&latiQ.nshMasusdtlx
n t h ^ n exjnle.
some stmaglv held
beliefs, especially among older Catholics
who we love and respect. So it’s how to go
about this work and do it in a way that
doesn’t harm those relationships. I feel like
that was more the fear articulated than
worrying about the Archdiocese.
I. B.: How do you plan to move forward ‘with
campaign?
J. Y.: We’re trying to build the base, doing,
outreach, asking “who do you know?” ,
Finding people to help us spread the word,
so gathering names so that we can connect
with them. Making sure that we are
accessibleto people in other, ways. Some
day we might have a website, but for. the
most part we are all volunteers, some of us
are retired. Not a ton of bandwidth, so it’s ,
working to build it up. To get beyond some
of the usual suspect churches. We want to
make sure we’re connecting with people in
the metro area, other parishes, to make
sure that it’s this Oregon-wide thing and not
a bunch of Portland liberal Catholics who
are doing this.
I. B.: Are you asking people to give toward
marriage equality, to support the campaign?
I. B.: Do you fear or does your group fear
taking onlhe Archdiocese?
J. Y.-: That hasn’t been part of it. It’s more
getting the word out that we exist. And
really trying to build this really inclusive
movement so that it’s not top-down.
J. Y.: We want to engage them in a
dialogue. I think the underpinning to all of
I.B.: I f that’s the case, how does that move
marriage equality forward?
J.Y.: I think that’s a better question for
the campaign. The Archdiocese, the
Archbishop, has told his staff they have
joined the Protect Oregon Coalition and
they’re going to'put their energy and
resources behind how they understand '
marriage, which is a unique relationship,
between man and woman. We think it’s
im portant to show this alternate
perspective. In that sense, we can help. The
other thing that is on the horizon is the
religious exemption that would allow
businesses to decline to serve LGBTs
couples. I think in the case of Oregon, it’s I
going to be around same-sex weddings,
solemnizations, ceremonies related to that.
So, if it’s your birthday or graduation that’s
fine, but when it comes to weddings,
businesses could say.“Yeah, no, my
religion.” If that moves forward and they -
collect enough signatures for the ballot in
November, then we think the Catholic voice
as well as the voices of other people of faith
will be an important voice in saying our faith
is an important part of our lives, but we
don’t think that discrimination is OK on the
basis of religion.
I. B.: How are peoplewho support gay
marrige not to be complicit in giving to the
Church, when the Archdiocese is giving
directly to campaigns against marriage
equality?
J. Y.: Some of the money that goes to the
Archdiocese copies back to the parish. So...;
there’s a real discernment that people will
have to make around giving money to the
Archdiocese, because as frustrated as
people may be with the Archdiocese and the
stand it’s taking on same-sex marriage, the
money can also do a lot of good. It’s not like
you can say OK you can do this, but yoii
can’t do that.