"I might be hurting the cause I was trying to help."

The Enquirer ran the story:

Sam Lapin, who teaches communications mostly at the university's Grant County campus and says he is a minister through the Internet-based Universal Life Church, withdrew from the Feb. 19 event at NKU organized by Common Ground, a group for gay and lesbian students.

Lapin might have been breaking the law if he had performed a ceremony labeled "official" by the Common Ground invitation. Kentucky voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2004 banning same-sex marriages, and state law says that any minister who performs an official wedding knowing that it would not be recognized could be charged with a misdemeanor.

The irony is quite saddening: that a well-meaning minister could damage his or her cause by performing the act they are fighting for.