(Newser) – Gene Robinson became the nation's first openly gay bishop in 2003, formed a civil union with his longtime partner, Mark Andrew, five years later, and eventually married him after New Hampshire legalized gay marriage. Now, he writes today in the Daily Beast, that marriage is ending after the couple's 25-plus years together. But, he writes, "it is at least a small comfort to me to know that like any marriage, gay and lesbian couples are subject to the same complications and hardships that afflict marriages between heterosexual couples."

Robinson continues: "All of us sincerely intend, when we take our wedding vows, to live up to the ideal of “til death do us part.'" His faith in marriage, he says, is "undiminished by the reality of divorcing someone I have loved for a very long time, and will continue to love even as we separate. Love can endure, even if a marriage cannot." With an eye on the recently celebrated Christian holiday, he says he holds to his faith: "If God can bring an Easter out of that awful, long-ago Good Friday, then God can bring new life to me and Mark out of the pain of our parting company." Click for Robinson's entire piece. (Read more gay marriage stories.)

