OGU celebrates the USA at Ocean Grove’s July 4th parade in 2009. Blogfinger photo.
This is what the Asbury Park Sun had to say (Oct. 18, 2013) about Ocean Grove, as the story of New Jersey’s new same sex-marriage law was developing:
“Neptune has a significant population of same-sex couples, particularly in its Ocean Grove section which saw high-profile litigation involving the prohibition of same-sex couples using the Ocean Grove boardwalk pavilion for civil union ceremonies.”
The link transfers the reader to a one-year-old article about the six-year-old charge of discrimination against the CMA.
So here we have a media report from Asbury Park that turns the spotlight on OG’s gay population and then immediately segues to the Pavilion controversy of 2007.
Why should the upbeat story of gay marriage in New Jersey be distorted locally by dredging up the Pavilion matter again? Is the media going to crank up the heat regarding that Pavilion issue which was about a civil union ceremony and not about gay marriage?
We haven’t even had our first gay marriage in Neptune, and already the neighbors are stirring the pot. Sure there is a distant historic link, but really the news now is about the just-born same-sex marriage law which many local gays are celebrating and even participating in. So why emphasize the old news when the new news is so positive?
Ocean Grove United has been working hard this past year in solidarity with the OG Camp Meeting Association to build good relations on behalf of the entire town. It is up to all Grovers to resist any efforts to turn our town into a lightening rod regarding controversial gay rights issues. I, for one, will not be posting Blogfinger comments from nasty bomb throwers regarding these subjects. We certainly will post comments that are thoughtful and objective.
I would guess that Ocean Grove’s “significant population of same-sex couples” would prefer to be like anybody else, and not be singled out by media troublemakers.
We invite Ocean Grove gay citizens to comment on this subject here. And, if any of our “significant [gay] population” would be willing, we would like to interview you for an article about gay marriage in Ocean Grove. And perhaps one couple who will be having a wedding ceremony in the Grove will invite us to come, take pictures and write about the event.
Contact us at Blogfinger@verizon.net.
–Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
AMY WINEHOUSE (Back to Black. The B Sides)