New York church wedding for gay activist

AN Irish Catholic gay activist will marry his male partner in a spectacular church ceremony in New York this week.

Brendan Fay left Ireland in 1984 but never imagined he would one day wed another man in a church.

The 45-year-old Drogheda native marries partner, Tom Moulton, 45, at the Episcopal Church of St Ann in Brooklyn, on Saturday afternoon.

The couple met at a Sunday evening Catholic mass in Greenwich Village, in January 1996 and got engaged one year later.

“It’s impossible to imagine that a love of our kind could be accepted like this, it’s going to be a great day,” he said.

The couple share a home in Astoria and they hope to adopt a child one day.

Mr Moulton works as an oncologist at Montefiore Medical Centre in the Bronx and Mr Fay gives spiritual retreats.

Mr Moulton describes his partner as someone “passionate about justice and not just for gays and lesbians.”

The couple hope the marriage will increase pressure on Governments worldwide and the Catholic church to fully recognise single sex relationships.

“We want this marriage to send out a message that same sex couples should be allowed marry, just the same as any couple.

“There are gay couples up and down Ireland living like us. I know many of them have sought church blessings but they can’t get them. It seems you can get blessings for cows, cars, and goats, but not for this,” Mr Fay said.

Hundreds of family and friends will attend the wedding bash, including well- known State Assembly man Richard Gottfried.

The couple will wear lavender and green kilts during the ceremony and their reception will take place at a church hall in Brooklyn.

Mr Fay sprang to prominence when he founded the Lavender and Green Alliance, a NY-based lesbian and gay group. Since 2000 he has organised the city’s alternative St Patrick’s Day parade for gays and lesbians.

He is currently working on a collection of stories about his friend Fr Michael Judge, the fire chaplin killed in the September 11 World Trade Center attack.

Mr Fay was stabbed in New York in 1994 and ex-city mayors Guilliani and David Dinkins visited him at Bellevue Hospital where he was treated for a collapsed lung.