DURHAM, N.H. — A small evangelical church in Durham, N.H., has been told it cannot be the site for the town’s primary elections because it hosted a prayer service last year for opponents of the state’s openly gay Episcopal bishop.
Town officials have found a new location for the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 27 after one town councilor said the Durham Evangelical Church had endorsed “intolerance and homophobia,” according to the Manchester Union Leader.
The nondenominational church of 400 members offered its building to conservative Episcopalians for a Nov. 2 prayer service, at the same time openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson was being consecrated across town at the University of New Hampshire.
The town’s regular polling place, Oyster River High School, is unusable because of construction. The town held its annual meeting and voting last year at the evangelical church, which prompted concerns from a “few voices” about voting in a church, Town Administrator Todd Selig said.
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