Sally Kern heckled by protestors
Sally Kern heckled by protestors
Tags: Protestors, SallyHundreds protest anti-gay, anti-Jewish group’s arrival In RHode Island
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders turned out on street corners Friday in spontaneous opposition to the anti-gay, anti-Jew message of a tiny group of demonstrators from Kansas. More than 300 students from East Providence High School crammed one corner of the city’s busiest intersection at Taunton and Pawtucket avenues as school let out. Some gripped neon signs supporting gay people. During the school day, students also wore yarmulkes to support their Jewish classmates. At another corner, 100 or so people, including high school alumni, gathered, holding signs such as “Teach Love, Not Hate” and “Our Giant Signs are Better than Yours.” One even had a pink bunny suit on with “I Love Boys” written on his belly. On a third corner, five members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., carried epithet-laden picket signs, denouncing homosexuality and declaring, “America is doomed” for tolerating gays and Jews. Various counter-protestors chanted — “Go Home” or “Gay is the Way” — and for a short time the shouts unified in obscenities. “I know a lot of gay people in my family,” freshman Jayden DeCosta said. “It’s anybody’s right to do what they want.”
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/hundreds-prot…
PRINCETON: Students picket same-sex marriage opponents
PRINCETON — Waving umbrellas and posters, around 30 Princeton students danced and cheered in front of the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) Nassau Street offices Wednesday to voice disapproval of the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage.
NOM, which was founded in 2007 by Princeton politics professor Robert George and Maggie Gallagher of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, is a nonprofit organization that serves as a resource for organized opposition to same-sex marriage around the country, according to its Web site. The group is based in Princeton, across the street from the university.
”The fact that NOM exists so close to campus and that it was founded by a Princeton professor, yet that there hasn’t been much discussion about the issue, gives the impression that Princeton is ambivalent,” said Emily Sung, a sophomore who helped organize the protest. “That’s what we’re combating. We want to end the silence.”
Many protestors showed up in rain gear, referencing NOM’s “Gathering Storm” commercial, which features actors standing in front of a foreboding background of storm clouds. The commercial, part of NOM’s $1.5 million “Religious Liberty Ad Campaign,” warns of a coming “storm” in the fight over same-sex marriage.
See PRINCETON: Students picket same-sex marriage opponents
Packet Online - Princeton,NJ,USA * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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oin the Impact protests ex-gay training
The latest foray by Exodus International, the country’s leading ex-gay ministry, into Boston was a relatively low-key affair, but the grassroots LGBT group Join the Impact Massachusetts and other activists turned out to protest and send a loud message of opposition to their teachings.
Exodus held an April 28 pastor training at Park Street Church to promote the organization’s message that gay and lesbian people can change their orientation and become heterosexual. Join the Impact held a protest across the street near Park Street Station, but following the speaking portion of the demonstration some of the attendees urged the organizers to move the protest closer to the church, within view of the Exodus training attendees. The protestors marched across the street into the Granary Burying Ground, an historic cemetery next to the church that houses the remains of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and the victims of the Boston Massacre, among other important figures in American history, and continued their protest there for about 15 minutes until a police officer asked them to disperse.
Exodus declined a request by Bay Windows for permission to cover the pastor training, saying the event was closed to the press. Exodus has held prior events in Boston, including a daylong conference in 2005 that also sparked a protest by LGBT activists (See “My day with the ex-gays,” Nov. 3, 2005).
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Prop 8 in court today: Stop Ken Starr from divorcing loving couples!
This morning, before the California Supreme Court, Ken Starr will argue for the forcible divorce of 18,000 loving same-sex couples who married before Proposition 8 passed.
Starr has said the marriage ban should stand because of the state’s role in protecting the welfare of children.
The hypocrisy of “protecting” children by divorcing their parents is unconscionable. Yet this is just one in a parade of outrageous lies by right-wing extremists.
So HRC is launching a new campaign to expose this dishonest fear-mongering against equality – to counteract the lies with respectful dialogue and grassroots action.
Sign our first petition at EndtheLies.org – Tell Ken Starr to stop using lies about child “welfare” to divorce loving parents.
Since it’s no longer as acceptable to display open bigotry against LGBT people, the right-wing has resorted to lies and fear tactics. Take Ken Starr’s statement that same-sex marriage amounts to “seizing and hijacking the marriage relationship in order to achieve apartheid-type values.”
HRC’s EndtheLies.org campaign will help us combat these untruths in the media, in Congress, in our statehouses, schools, workplaces and faith communities. And that will be key during the brewing battle over hate crimes legislation – which the right-wing is already trying to drag into the gutter.
They say that hate crimes laws will criminalize pastors and “do away with our freedom of speech.”
They spent millions during the Prop. 8 campaign telling Californians that marriage equality was corrupting schoolchildren and eroding their “moral character.”
They’re running absurd ads that suggest transgender anti-discrimination measures will lead to men attacking women and girls in public restrooms.
We’ve exposed dozens more outrages at EndtheLies.org – check it out and sign our Ken Starr petition today.
Right-wing extremists will keep spreading these lies as long as no one holds them accountable. They will continue to raise money hand-over-fist and use lies to block hate crime and workplace protections, marriage equality, HIV/AIDS funding, and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
That’s why YOUR action is so critical. These lies aren’t just offensive – they stand in the way of basic fairness and equality.
EndtheLies – starting with Ken Starr’s!
Last night, HRC joined with other groups to sponsor Marriage Equality USA’s “Eve of Justice” vigils across California. Today, hundreds of protestors will gather outside the courthouse in San Francisco during the oral arguments. The court will issue a ruling within 90 days. This is one of those rare moments in our movement when we can shine a light and change hearts and minds – please spread the word to family and friends.
Warmly,
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/prop-8-in-cou…
Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash
Since California voters passed a ban on gay marriage, some supporters of the measure have found themselves squarely in the bull’s-eye of angry gay rights activists.
It’s no secret who gave money for and against the controversial amendment to the state’s constitution, known as Proposition 8. California’s secretary of state publicized the lists of contributors, which were picked up by local media and Web sites.
And in the aftermath of a contentious campaign, protests followed. In Los Angeles, would-be patrons of a popular Tex-Mex restaurant were greeted by furious protestors like John Dennison.
“El Coyote — millions in gay margarita money funding hatred,” Dennison yelled during the protest. “Boycott El Coyote!”
The restaurant owner’s daughter, Margie Christofferson, a faithful Mormon, had made a modest $100 contribution to the “Yes on 8″ campaign — and the restaurant’s gay patrons, like Edward Stanley, felt betrayed.
“I won’t be eating here,” Stanley said.
Business dipped about 30 percent at the height of the protest, and it still hasn’t returned to pre-protest levels. Several members of the restaurant’s staff — including many of its gay employees — have seen their hours cut back in response. And Christofferson, who managed the restaurant, has resigned.
Others Feel The Heat
In Sacramento, the owners of Leatherby’s Family Creamery found themselves part of the backlash when The Sacramento Bee printed the list of contributors. Dave Leatherby, a devout Roman Catholic father of 10, says he was responding to a direct request from his bishop to give generously.
“We gave $20,000 for Yes on Proposition 8,” he says.
And once that was known, retaliation was swift. “We soon started getting very nasty e-mails and letters and phone calls by the hundreds,” he says.
Leatherby says he was mystified, because the Creamery had always enjoyed good relations with the gay and lesbian community.
And he says something interesting happened when demonstrators arrived outside his shop: Business went up, instead of down. “The day they picketed us, there were about 15 picketers, and that day we had people waiting two hours to get into our restaurant for four or five hours,” he says.
Not every backlash story ends that way.
Richard Raddon, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Scott Eckern, director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, are devout Mormons. Both made contributions to Yes on 8, and both got demands for their resignations from gay rights protestors. They quit so their organizations wouldn’t face further controversy. Ironically, the film festival has been instrumental in introducing works by gay and lesbian filmmakers to a broader audience — and the musical theater included works by gay playwrights and composers.
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NPR
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/backers-of-ca…
Gay rights protestors take their message to holiday shoppers
About two dozen demonstrators gathered at one of Atlanta’s busiest shopping corridors Saturday to continue protesting California’s Proposition 8 and similar measures that prevent same-sex couples from marrying.
The afternoon protest at the intersection of Peachtree and Lenox roads — which separates Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza — generated a steady stream of honking horns from drivers responding to signs like, “All I want for Christmas is equal rights” and “When can we vote on your marriage?”
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Southern Voice, GA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/gay-rights-pr…
