"In our church, God calls us to honor as sacred the marriages of lesbian and gay people," she says. "Justice demands that the state recognize our families through civil marriage, and the President must serve all Americans by serving the cause of justice."

Nixon believes that, "a religious voice should not stand in the way of civil rights, but rather, in the great tradition of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., call society to the greater good of equality and justice."

"As a religious leader," she says, "I have performed all manner of same-sex and mixed-sex weddings. It is true that religious institutions, with their accompanying traditions and practices, have a right to promote those marriages they deem holy and deny those they deem unholy. This aspect of religious freedom helps secure the cornerstone of the separation of church and state."

"Because marriage is not only about social recognition but also carries with it social responsibility and a whole package of legal and civic benefits, to prohibit this social institution from certain categories of people is beyond hearing distance from the heartbeat of democracy. That religious institutions can continue to choose to whom they extend their rituals and ceremonies is without question."

MCC San Francisco is Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco is a beloved community joining together from diverse spiritual backgrounds and ministering primarily within the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered communities as a house of prayer for all people and a home for queer spirituality. Our vision is a transformed world, where all life matters and every person belongs.

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