Welch to preside at same-sex ceremony

Adam Smeltz

State College Mayor Bill Welch, in what may be a first for public officials in Centre County, has agreed to preside at a same-sex commitment ceremony.

Six gay and lesbian couples will express their love and devotion at the public ceremony, scheduled for March 29 in the Penn State HUB Robeson Center, organizer Tom Koerber said Thursday.

“All of them have been together for several years and are actively committed to their partners,” said Koerber, co-director of the university Coalition of LGBTA Graduate Students.

The coalition has scheduled the ceremony to coincide with the start of Pride Week, an annual week when gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students — along with straight allies — drum up pride in their community.

“One aspect is pride in the relationships in our community and the members who are committed to each other,” said Koerber, a doctoral student in biochemistry and molecular biology.

At this point, he said, the coalition will not release the names of the couples planning to participate in the ceremony. Koerber said he fears retribution against them.

“Right now, everyone has been supportive,” he said. “So we have no indication that there is anyone who would (seek to do harm). But we don’t want to entice people to.”

Seventeen organizations, including campus groups and local businesses, have pledged support to the event.

Welch, in his 15th year as mayor, said the coalition approached him with the ceremony idea several weeks ago.

He did not hesitate to preside, he said. Indeed, Welch said he was surprised that it took “the better part of 15 years for anyone to ask me to do a ceremony like that.”

Technically, Pennsylvania law does not allow same-sex marriage or civil unions. Welch and other supporters said the ceremony will not attempt to be legally binding. Nor will it be a wedding.

Welch said he does not view his involvement as a political statement, either.

“Why would it be?” he said. “What’s political about commitment?”

He does not expect to be a “standard bearer” in the pro-gay marriage movement in Pennsylvania, Welch said. But “I don’t personally see any problem with it.”

“I think they’re just trying to make a point that these are folks in stable, established relationships, just as if they were married — or ought to be married,” Welch said of the ceremony plans.

Welch and Charles C. Brown Jr., the county senior judge, said they were not aware of any other same-sex commitment events where an elected official presided — not in Centre County history, anyway.

Brown said he thinks each elected official can decide whether he or she would preside over a same-sex commitment ceremony. He called it a personal matter.

“I suppose you could project political ramifications onto that if someone wanted to make an issue of it,” Brown said. “But there’s no legal impediment to” presiding.

George’s Floral Boutique in State College is one of at least seven local businesses supporting the March ceremony. The store co-owners, Randy Ammerman and Mitchell Ballas, just celebrated their 20th anniversary together.

“It’s kind of interesting to see how the campus has evolved since we went to school and what’s there to support anybody in that manner,” Ammerman said. “Of course, we try to support everything that we can” with regard to student events.

Ammerman said the campus is far more supportive of and welcoming toward the gay community than it was two decades ago. “And the funding is there, I think, more so now than in the past.”

Costs for the ceremony should be a few thousand dollars, Koerber said. The College of Health and Human Development, the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs and the LGBTA Student Resource Center are among the listed on-campus contributors.

The coalition hopes the ceremony will generate local discussion about same-sex partnerships and the inability of gay couples to marry in the state, Koerber said.

“We want to acknowledge their love and devotion in as legitimate of a ceremony as we can legally have in Pennsylvania,” he said.

Adam Smeltz can be reached at 231-4631.