LGBT NY Protests Mormon Church Support for Anti-Gay Marriage CA Prop 8
by BRUCE-MICHAEL GELBERT
photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Whoopi Goldberg & other New Yorkers protesting California's Prop 8
Following demonstrations in California, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and elsewhere, thousands of New York LGBT community members and supporters rallied, in a peaceful grassroots evening action on November 12, across the street from and outside the Mormon Temple near Lincoln Center, in protest against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for its active role in campaigning for California Proposition 8 and in spending, reportedly, $20-to-22 million to assure passage of this discriminatory measure. Proposition 8, which passed on Election Day, winning 52% of the vote, defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman and, in effect, constitutionally repealed the right to same sex marriage, which had been legal in California since May.
Carrying signs with such slogans as "Prop 8=Prop H8," "Did you cast a ballot or a stone?" and "I am a latter gay saint!" and a banner that read "God Loves Gay Marriage," protesters fervently chanted "Tax this Church," "Repeal Prop 8, Separate Church and State," and "Gay Straight Black White, Marriage Is a Civil Right" from 6 to 7 p.m. and, for a time, blocked traffic on Columbus Avenue before surging down Broadway, past the American Bible Society Building, toward Columbus Circle.
Among those spotted in the crowd were Whoopi Goldberg, playwright Dan Clancy with partner Charlie Isola, and entertainer Gusty Winds.
LGBT New Yorkers will also demonstrate outside City Hall on Saturday, November 15 at 1:30 p.m. as part of an action at city halls at the same time nationwide to protest the passage of Proposition 8.
