First openly gay Anglican bishop confirmed
Despite last-minute allegations: on 5 August 2003, Gene Robinson was confirmed as a bishop.
On 5 August 2003, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church, the US church of the Anglican Communion, confirmed the election of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. By 62 votes to 45, an openly gay cleric was confirmed for the first time as a bishop of a major Christian church with a historic episcopate.
Robinson, born in Kentucky in 1947, had been openly gay since 1986 and had lived with his partner Mark Andrew for years. His diocese in New Hampshire had already elected him on 7 June, but church law required the consent of the General Convention. On 3 August the House of Deputies, made up of more than 800 clergy and lay people, approved the election by a two-thirds majority.
The decisive vote in the House of Bishops had originally been scheduled for 4 August but was postponed by a day. Shortly before the vote, two anonymous allegations surfaced: a parishioner from Vermont accused Robinson of inappropriate touching, and a further allegation concerned a supposed link between a queer youth organisation and pornographic content. Bishop Gordon Scruton led a 24-hour investigation and completely refuted both allegations.
On 2 November 2003 Robinson was consecrated in an ice hockey arena in Durham, amid continuing protests and wearing a bulletproof vest under his vestments. His consecration caused a deep rift in the worldwide Anglican Communion: a group of 19 bishops warned of a schism, and conservative congregations broke away from the church. At the same time, Robinson became a global symbol of the visibility of lesbians and gay men in religious institutions. He remained in office until 2013.