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NEWS & LETTERS, April 2004Tennessee Gay rights rally draws reactionsMemphis, Tenn.--For three weekends in a row 20 to 25 demonstrators stood at a busy intersection to show our support for gay and lesbian rights, especially gay marriage. The demonstrations were called by the Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice and the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center. Other participants included people from News and Letters Committees and Women’s Action Coalition. Two transvestites also felt empowered to join. One of the extraordinary things was the overwhelming support given by people driving and walking by, and this was everyone, men and women, Black, white, old and young. People honked their horns in response to our sign "Honk if you support gay marriage," and gave us thumbs up signs. One woman, a bishop, walked by and shook all of our hands and introduced herself. One guy stopped his car and started screaming: "I HATE George Bush." We weren’t sure if he understood why we were there, but then he grinned and gave us the thumbs up sign. We only got a few thumbs down and one woman threw a tract at us; it was about Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic "Passion of the Christ" movie. We carried other signs too. One had a picture of George Bush that read "I’m a bigot." A woman had a picture of herself and another woman on her sign and it read: "This is love too." They will try to get a marriage license here. My sign said "Fundamentalism is Fascism! Equal Rights Now!" I talked to the TV media and the newspapers were there too. I told the reporter that there was this outpouring of people who demand their rights because the U.S. has a history of people demanding their freedom. We oppose a narrow view of what an American is or can be. Bush is playing on people’s fears. This is an ongoing activity and we will move to another street corner next week. --Activist |
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