by Steven Froias, OGR editor

The simmering summer long civil union controversy reached an emotional, if not an actual climax at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association Labor Day meeting.

The annual meeting, held in Bishop Jane’s Tabernacle, traditionally is a vehicle for the Camp Meeting Association to issue a report to the community on the season just ending and outline plans for the year ahead.

But this year, hundreds of additional Grovers showed up, most of who were there to register their disagreement with the CMA over the ban on civil unions in effect on the boardwalk pavilion.

Ocean Grove United (Click here for more info), a group dedicated to overturning the ban, the gay and lesbian political activist group Garden State Equality, Inc. and the Human Rights Campaign coordinated their efforts to ensure the large turnout and provided protesters with placards bearing slogans such as “Ocean Grove for a prejudice free pavilion” and “A public boardwalk open to all.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, the overwhelming majority of speakers urged, beseeched or demanded that the CMA leadership allow civil union ceremonies to take place in the pavilion.

While CMA president Scott Rasmussen assured the crowd that all would get their chance to speak, he said that as the matter was now the subject of a legal proceeding the CMA itself would have no comment on the matter. (As previously reported, in response to a state investigation into a discrimination complaint by two Ocean Grove women who were denied the use of the structure for their civil union ceremony, the CMA filed a federal lawsuit against that action.)

Rasmussen maintained that the suit was filed so that "the CMA can use its facilities in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs."

Most of the speakers disagreed that the pavilion was a church, or religious structure, pointing out that it had traditionally been used and viewed as a public accommodation.

Indeed, Congressman Frank Pallone, the first speaker, pointed out that the CMA had declared the structure a public building when applying for state and federal funds which he helped obtain for the CMA which were used for repairs through the years. He warned the CMA that municipal, state and federal dollars could be at risk if they failed to allow civil union ceremonies in the pavilion, and fervently asked them to reconsider their position. He was accorded a huge ovation from the crowd.

Speaker after speaker thereafter spoke out against the ban, perhaps none more emotionally than the two couples who had been denied used of the pavilion.

All four women stifled tears as they spoke of their love for Ocean Grove and each other, and the sense of community they had always felt in Ocean Grove until they were informed that the pavilion would not be available to them for a civil union ceremony.

Many others joined them in expressing a sense of sorrow, outrage and frustration with the Camp Meeting Association’s decision. The very few who spoke in defense of the CMA’s position were not warmly received.

In other news from the meeting, President Scott Rasmussen extended his thanks for 13 years of service to David and Marilyn Shotwell, recalling that when Mr. Shotwell had agreed to take over the CMA administrator position in the 90s it was to be only on a temporary basis. But his dedication to the community and to Ocean Grove had extended that tenure quite beyond a few months. He retired just this past year.

He went on to recount the Shotwell’s great charity to youth in trouble or distress throughout their lives, noting that the couple had on more than one occasion opened their home to those in need.

Camp Meeting Association officials also reported that beach, concert and youth activities attendance was up for the year just past. And Treasurer Jack Green reported that books were balanced for the year.