- Nov 25, 2001
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Is gay-marriage right around the corner?
CNN.com - Episcopal leaders approve gay bishop
CNN.com - Episcopal leaders approve gay bishop
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- The House of Bishops voted Tuesday evening to confirm the Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, making him the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church's history.
Robinson needed a simple majority of the 106 votes to be confirmed. He received 62.
A date will be set for his consecration.
The vote by the House of Bishops follows weeks of heated debate, several days of a contentious conference and a one-day investigation that cleared Robinson of wrongdoing related to two 11th-hour allegations. (More on allegations)
Some Episcopal leaders who have opposed ratifying Robinson since the New Hampshire diocese elected him in June said that if he won Tuesday's vote, they would walk out of the church's meeting in Minneapolis and go across the street to a Lutheran church for a prayer service.
Sunday, Robinson won a vote by the House of Deputies, made up of more than 800 priests and lay leaders.
The bishops' vote had been set for Monday but was postponed after David Lewis of Vermont accused Robinson of touching him inappropriately at a convocation and an activist opposed to Robinson's candidacy told bishops an organization Robinson was connected to offered a link on its Web site that could lead to erotica.
A spokesman for Robinson said he did not recall meeting Lewis, though he did remember the crowded event that Lewis described. He also said Robinson had no relationship to or knowledge of the Web site.
Organizers of the Web site -- outright.org -- also said Robinson had no connection to the site, and that potentially objectionable links were removed. Outright in Portland said the link was not in line with its mission "to create safe, positive and affirming environments for young gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and questioning people ages 22 and under."
The allegation, the group said, was "clearly an attempt to discredit this important nomination."
Lewis, in an e-mail sent Sunday night to Bishop Thomas Ely of the Vermont diocese, said Robinson "does not maintain appropriate boundaries with men."
"When I first encountered Gene at a ... convocation a couple of years ago, he put his hands on me inappropriately every time I engaged him in conversation. NO GAY MAN HAS EVER BEHAVED TOWARDS ME THIS WAY" (capitals in original).
Church investigators went to Manchester, Vermont, on Monday to speak to Lewis, church officials told CNN.
"Where there's smoke, there isn't always fire," Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island said about the allegations. "There's a lot of smoke in our culture today, on all sides of all kinds of issues. And it doesn't mean that there's any fire there.
"The fire can be really the fire of evil, deception, and fear -- but the fires of truth and righteousness will prevail."
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