Maine repealed state recognition of same-sex marriage equality by popular vote yesterday, becoming the 31st state in the union to legally prohibit marriage equality.

But at this point, as the pro-LGBT equality groups wonder about how to turn this situation around – perhaps through more lobbying, more speeches, more marches, perhaps the most (or least) seasoned veterans in this struggle are realizing what their compatriots in California have observed since Proposition 8 last year: it’s the religious congregations which are at the very heart of ideological opposition to marriage equality in any part of the country, any part of the world.

So why can’t the churches be integrated?

Sure, congregations are private, non-profit institutions, and they aren’t supposed to be used to advocate political opinions. But ultimately, the impact of marriage equality reaches much deeper into human society than just the state level, and it can hardly be considered a "political" opinion or stance since so much of the opposition to marriage equality comes from forces which are the least associated with the operations of the state. 

The LGBT rights movement has already consolidated some degree of affinity and sympathy from LGBT constituents of various congregations, and a number of progressivist religious organizations also embrace some degree of mere tolerance for LGBT members and families. "Tolerance", however, is not the word that should be used within the context of religious interaction with LGBT couples and families; rather, the key words of religious-LGBT interaction should be "recognition" and "affirmation" – that whatever association that the congregation recognizes should never be put asunder by a third party for any reason.

Those who do seek to put asunder such recognitions, be it at the state or religious levels, should be confronted by the sight and sound of that which they seek to abolish from sight and mind, and should be confronted at the levels most intimate to the third party. 

Therefore, those congregations and congregational associations which seek to repress state recognition of LGBT families should be confronted by the sight of LGBT families sitting within their pews and the sounds of their vocal affirmations of mutually-deep love.

For the record, I’ve only seen the idea of a "church sit-in" being discussed twice: here and here. If the latter is anything to go by, then Soulforce may have done the first church sit-in protest of the marriage equality movement.

So the Mormons, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, AGs, Eastern Orthodox, Orthodox Jewish, Shi’a Muslims, Sunni Muslim, Baha’i and Buddhists and their congregations must meet their LGBT members and LGBT families. They must be visited by the sight of LGBT love in their own churches.

Otherwise, there will be no upturn in the fortunes of LGBT individuals and families. We will not be able to spread the recognition and affirmation of LGBT love in the religious audience of our country, and we will continue to lose the fight for marriage equality and other LGBT rights in the political institutions of the United States.