Gay canon’s rise delayed by charge, probe of porn link

A homosexual clergyman’s election as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire was delayed yesterday as church officials investigated his links to a homosexual youth group and charges that he sexually harassed another man.

Episcopal leaders meeting in Minneapolis had been scheduled to vote to approve Canon V. Gene Robinson as the church’s first openly homosexual bishop until the 11th-hour accusation by a Vermont man, who said Mr. Robinson’s advances toward him at a church convention showed an “alarming weakness of character.”

That accusation became public the same day Episcopalians learned that Outright, a homosexual youth ministry founded by Mr. Robinson, included links to hard-core pornography on its Web site.

Mr. Robinson, 56, was elected bishop by New Hampshire Episcopalians on June 7, but his selection must be ratified by a majority of clergy, laity and bishops at this week’s Episcopal General Convention. Conservatives in the church have criticized the nomination of Mr. Robinson, a father of two who divorced his wife in 1987 and has had a homosexual lover for 13 years.

Among accomplishments, Mr. Robinson cites his role in founding the Concord, N.H., chapter of Outright, an organization whose mission — described at www.outright.org — is to “create safe, positive and affirming environments for young gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and questioning people ages 22 and under.”

As late as Sunday night, the Outright site included links to a pornographic site that features explicit photos of group sex, including close-ups of genitalia.

Other links available at the Outright site yesterday included a Web site describing “sexual intimacy for gay men with AIDS/HIV,” another link describing “the wonderful world of lesbianism” and another named “polyamory resources,” referring to the practice of one person having several mates.

“This is youth ministry like you have never seen it,” cyber-journalist David Virtue observed.

The charges of sexual harassment against Mr. Robinson were made by David Lewis of Manchester, Vt. The Associated Press reported that Mr. Lewis told several Episcopal bishops that Mr. Robinson fondled him at a regional church gathering.

“When I first encountered Gene at a Province 1 convocation a couple of years ago, he put his hands on me inappropriately every time I engaged him in conversation,” said an e-mail attributed to Mr. Lewis that was widely circulated yesterday at the Episcopal convention in Minneapolis.

“No gay man has ever behaved toward me this way,” the e-mail said. “If I were a straight woman reporting heterosexual harassment from a straight male priest, would you hesitate to take the matter seriously? Well, I am a straight man, reporting harassment from a gay man from another diocese.”

Reuters news agency reported that the note also said, “My personal experience with him is he does not maintain appropriate boundaries with men. I believe this is an alarming weakness of character that alone makes Gene unsuitable for the office of bishop.”

Attempts to reach Mr. Lewis by telephone yesterday were unsuccessful. A staff member of the Manchester Journal confirmed that Mr. Lewis is a contributor to that Vermont weekly.

Seth Bongartz, a lawyer in Manchester who told AP that he knows Mr. Lewis “fairly well,” said he is married with two children and apparently training to become an Episcopal priest.

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