Law student sorry for €6.75m suit over gay marriage question
Last June, Stephen Dunne refused to answer the question on same-sex marriage because he said it would “defile his Christian faith”.
He said the exam was not the place for a “morally repugnant and patently offensive” question addressing the rights of married lesbians, their children and their property.
He said to answer the question would legitimise same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting, which is contrary to his moral beliefs.
At that point, Mr Dunne claimed his score of 268.866 on the November 2006 bar exam just missed the passing score of 270 points and the question would have secured him a passing mark. According to reports, he would merely have had to write “The question is about gay marriage” to have secured the extra two points needed to pass the bar.
However, he pursued the matter and became a focal point for conservative elements in the US who backed his stance.
The now 31-year-old has withdrawn his case and has written to Bay Windows, a Boston-based gay and lesbian newspaper, saying the action was “misguided” and that he had been lashing out.
He told the Irish Voice: “I have changed my mind on this issue and I have moved forward so much since last June. At the time I felt like the question was an imposition on the freedom of religion. But I have changed my mind and my heart since then — it is a 180 degree turnaround for me.”
And he drew comparisons between the discrimination gay people face now and what the Irish people experienced when they first came to America.
Mr Dunne has been studying 60 hours per week while working at a Boston law firm and said he expects to pass when he takes the bar exam again this month.
