Liberty Counsel attorneys Rena Lindevaldsen, left, and Mathew
Staver in a San Francisco courtroom Feb. 20, 2004, representing the Campaign
for California Families in its effort to halt gay marriages in the city. Staver’s
lawsuits against gay marriage have made him a rising star among conservatives.
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Prevalence of anti-gay incidents alarm residents
Broward policy is regarded as most progressive in the state
Two fundraisers result in more than $30,000 benefiting gay charities
advertisement
advertisement
|
By PHIL LaPADULA
Friday, January 14, 2005
At almost every marriage ceremony, a minister asks that familiar line right before
the couple ties the knot: “If anyone here knows why these two people should
not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
When it comes to gay marriage, Mathew Staver cannot hold his peace.
Staver, the founder and president of the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, and
an increasingly influential player in the religious right’s efforts to
stop gay marriage, has been involved in trying to thwart more than 30 gay marriage
lawsuits nationwide.
After the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, it was
Staver who stood up and objected by filing a federal lawsuit seeking to stop
same-sex marriages.
Staver asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and block the Massachusetts
court’s decision, arguing that the Massachusetts ruling was a “tyranny”
that threatened republican government.
The high court declined to hear the federal case.
When the mayor of San Francisco married hundreds of gay couples last summer,
Staver again could not hold his peace.
The Liberty Counsel was the first group to file a lawsuit challenging the mayor’s
actions. As a result of such legal challenges, the California Supreme Court
eventually halted the marriages.
And in Florida, Staver has tried to intervene in several gay marriage cases.
After Miami lawyer Ellis Rubin filed a lawsuit in Broward County on behalf
of a gay couple seeking a marriage license, Staver filed a motion to intervene.
A judge denied the motion, saying the Liberty Counsel did not have a direct
interest in the case.
Staver also filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Holmes County Clerk of Courts
Cody Taylor, after a gay couple sued there for the right to marry.
The suit asked the court to recognize the constitutionality of Florida’s
Defense of Marriage Act. In December, a judge dismissed the suit.
Staver is undaunted by those two setbacks, saying that he will continue to
file friend of the court briefs and to intervene in gay marriage lawsuits around
the country.
And he’s had enough victories in other anti-gay lawsuits to be taken
seriously on a national level by both pro-gay and anti-gay activists alike.
Links to Jerry Falwell
Move over Jerry Falwell. Staver is quickly gaining a reputation as a rising
star of the religious right.
In fact, Staver’s relationship to Falwell shows that he has been anointed
by the Lynchburg preacher to assume the role of top legal counsel for the religious
conservative movement.
Though the Liberty Counsel is based in Orlando, Fla., the organization’s
Center for Constitutional Litigation and Policy is located on the campus of
Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
In addition, Staver serves on the board of trustees of Liberty University and
has represented Falwell in legal actions.
But unlike Falwell, Staver’s preaching doesn’t happen in church.
His bully pulpit is the courtroom.
Staver said sees himself as a defender of freedom — specifically, religious
freedom.
One of the three main tenets of the Liberty Counsel is “advancing religious
freedom,” according to the organization’s mission statement.
The other two tenets of Liberty Counsel are defending “traditional values
and the right to life.”
In fact, Staver, a former minister, said he decided to become a legal activist
after viewing a video of an abortion.
It’s no surprise that Staver doesn’t mince words when describing
how he feels about same-sex marriage. In his many legal briefs and publications,
Staver has described gay marriage as a “tyranny,” “cultural
suicide” and an “abyss.”
In his book, “Same Sex Marriage: Putting Every Household at Risk,”
he even conjures up the image of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as a comparison.
The promotional material for Staver’s book says it provides answers to
questions including “how same-sex marriage threatens to harm our children”
and “how same-sex marriage is a threat to your marriage.”
“Churches can do whatever they want to,” Staver said about religious
denominations that choose to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies.
“Our policy and our litigation has nothing to do with private action,”
he said. “It has to do with whether or not you sanction [same-sex marriage]
by the state through the issuance of a license.”
Staver argued that the state has no obligation to sanction same-sex marriages,
just as it has “no obligation to sanction a church whose members want
to take drugs during communion, sacrifice animals or perform polygamous marriages.”
Asked whether he would support any kind of legal recognition of gay relationships,
Staver said he is opposed to anything that “mimics marriage.”
He said he has no problem with “gender-neutral” laws that provide
for benefits such as health insurance.
But fighting gay marriage is not the only item on Staver’s agenda. He
has his legal fingers in just about every gay rights pie.
He filed a friend of the court brief in Florida’s anti-gay adoption case.
This week, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case, thus
leaving Florida’s anti-gay adoption law in place.
Staver is not only claiming that decision as a legal victory, but he is also
encouraging other states to follow in Florida’s footsteps and enact their
own, similar anti-gay adoption laws.
Staver’s organization has also been a major force in blocking the Dignity
for All Students Act, a Florida state bill that seeks to protect students from
bullying and harassment.
Staver says his group objects to the bill because it addresses harassment based
on sexual orientation.
In 2003, the Liberty Counsel launched an e-mail and phone campaign against
the bill, arguing that it “violates students’ rights to freedom
of expression and religion.”
Last year, the Liberty Counsel posted an “alert” on its Web site
appealing to conservatives to “stop this homosexual propaganda act!”
Staver said he has sympathy for gay students who are harassed or bullied, but
he objects to the bill’s pro-gay language.
“I certainly think that no one should be bullied, whether it’s
for their sexuality or for any other reason, and, yes, I think it’s damaging
to their self esteem,” Staver said.
“I think there’s common ground that could be reached on both sides
if we came together at some table to address the issue,” Staver said.
But Stratton Pollitzer, South Florida director for Equality Florida, the gay
rights group that helped draft the student bill, was cautious of Staver’s
olive branch.
“We’re willing to sit down with any group,” said Pollitzer,
who said he’d never met with Staver or his organization. But he said he
had tried unsuccessfully to find common ground with members of the Christian
Coalition.
“If [Staver] really cares about protecting students, then what is he
doing about it?” Pollitzer asked. “He’s doing plenty to stop
us from protecting them.”
Pollitzer blamed Staver and his organization as a major factor in the bill’s
defeat so far.
Last year, for the second year in a row, the bill died without receiving a
hearing.
One of Staver’s biggest court victories was the Florida custody case between
a female-to-male transsexual, Michael Kantaras, and his former wife, Linda.
Linda Kantaras knew about her husband’s sex change operation before the
two married. But when the relationship soured, the two split, and a custody
battle ensued.
The couple had two children: One was Linda Kantaras’ child from a previous
relationship. Michael Kantaras had adopted that child.
The second was a child the two had while together. The child was conceived
through artificial insemination, using sperm from Michael Kantaras’ brother.
In the custody case, Staver represented Linda Kantaras for free.
Staver argued that Michael Kantaras was a female, despite having undergone
a sex change operation. Thus, he contended, Michael Kantaras’s marriage
to Linda Kantaras was invalid because Florida does not recognize same-sex marriage.
Accordingly, Staver continued, Michael Kantaras has no legal rights to the
children.
The appeals court agreed with Staver, ruling that Kantaras was a female and
the marriage was void.
But the appeals court sent the case back to the trial court to decide the custody
matter.
Currently, Michael Kantaras still has custody of his children, and the case
has been appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.
Karen Doering, a lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San
Francisco and who was the lead attorney for Michael Kantaras, said Staver was
“very disrespectful to my client from the beginning of the case.”
Doering noted that Staver intentionally referred to Michael Kantaras as “she”
in both his briefs and in oral arguments.
According to Doering, Staver also described Kantaras’s sex reassignment
as “cosmetic surgery” and referred to it as “an attempt to
mutilate her body.”
“Transsexualism is a recognized medical condition, and [Staver] totally
disregarded that condition,” Doering said.
Staver countered that referring to Michael Kantaras as a female went “to
the very heart of our case.” Referring to Kantaras as “he”
would have been admitting that he was wrong, Staver said.
“The court agreed with our analysis of the case,” Staver said.
“You don’t change your DNA or your gender just by having surgery
and taking hormones.”
Whether or not the Liberty Counsel wins or loses future battles in both the
courtrooms and the court of public opinion in America, both Staver’s friends
and his enemies acknowledge that he has emerged on the national landscape as
a legal and political dynamo.
In a statement on the Liberty Counsel Web site, Jerry Falwell heaps praise
on Staver.
“I can think of no greater work being done right now in America for the
sake of our religious freedom and Christian heritage than that being done by
the Liberty Counsel and its founder and president, Mathew Staver,” Falwell
is quoted as saying.
Even Doering, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, concedes that Staver
has become a weighty adversary.
“He is involved in a great deal of litigation,” she said.
The media are also turning more and more to Staver when seeking comment from
the religious right, “and that media attention itself gives him additional
power,” observed Doering.
Most recently, Staver appeared Jan. 11 on the Fox television news talk show,
“The O’Reilly Factor,” to discuss the Supreme Court’s
decision not to hear the Florida adoption case.
Staver’s calm demeanor and intellect help him bring a decidedly different
face to the Christian right than the one presented by many other notable figures,
such as Falwell — famous for his fiery, sometimes irrational remarks —
or activists such as Fred Phelps — widely viewed as both fanatical and
an embarrassment to conservatives.
Says Doering: “Staver is the Florida symbol of the far right.”
|
