CLGS

The following is a summary of media coverage CLGS has generated on issues of same-sex marriage and religion since 2007, listed by media outlet and date, along with explanation of two particular cases.

Print Media

Associated Press: 6/14/08; 5/26/09

Los Angeles Times: 11/16/08; 6/19/08; 5/20/08; 5/25/09

New York Times: 11/15/08; 6/18/08

Oakland Tribune: 10/22/08

Salon.com: 10/30/08

San Francisco Chronicle: 11/10/08; 10/22/08; 10/22/08; 6/15/08

San Francisco Weekly: 6/03/09        

Washington Post: 8/19/07

Broadcast/Internet Media

ABC News: 11/28/08

CBS 5 San Francisco: 10/21/08; 6/16/08

KALW San Francisco: "Your Call," 11/19/08

KCRW Los Angeles: "Which Way LA?" 10/30/08

Eady Media Biloxi, MS: "It Can't Just Be Me," 11/12/08

Fox News: 12/01/08

Proposition 8 Day of Decision: As lead organizer of the faith response to the California Supreme Court’s decision on Proposition 8, CLGS staff members and initiatives were featured in much of the Bay Area media on the night prior to the decision and after the decision was announced. The interfaith service at Grace Cathedral, organized by CLGS’s Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations, was covered by all television outlets in the Bay Area. After the decision, CLGS took the lead in assembling clergy to publicly protest the decision. An AP photo of clergy carrying a sign that said, “Faith Demands Equality!” was on the front page of the New York Times within minutes of the decision. Images of clergy leading the protest march,including the seventy-plus clergy who were arrested as part of nonviolent direct action, were featured on most national media broadcasts of the day’s events.

Response to controversy over Miss California USA Carrie Prejean’s comments against same-sex marriage equality: Miss California USA Carrie Prejean’s comments against same-sex marriage during the Miss USA Pageant prompted running commentary in the political and entertainment press. Aware that Pacific School of Religion alumna Rev. Nicole Lamarche was a former Miss California in the Miss America pageant, CLGS Executive Director Mary Ann Tolbert worked with her to create a statement supporting same-sex unions from a religious perspective. CLGS staff released the statement to national media and posted it to Pacific School of Religion’s Facebook page. The statement was picked up on Perez Hilton’s popular entertainment blog.(Hilton had asked the initial question that sparked the controversy.) Over the course of a week, PSR and CLGS homepages received more than 6000 hits. With the media attention that CLGS brought to her experience as both a pageant contestant and an ordained minister, Rev. Lamarche appeared on Larry King Live as a spokesperson for marriage equality.

To see links to many of the articles listed here, go to CLGS in the news.