Democratic Convention Protest: Gays to Protest Democrats' Failure to Back Equal Marriage Rights
Gay Rights Protesters Will Picket DNC Reception Hosted by Stonewall Democrats, Human Rights Campaign Fund, and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force


CHICAGO, July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Citing Senator John Kerry's support for an anti-gay amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution which could take away equal rights in the one state that has them, organizers with the DontAmend.com activist network will protest outside a reception for Democratic convention delegates. The protest will begin at 8:30 PM, Monday, July 26 outside the Avalon nightclub, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston.

"Rather than forthrightly saying that the civil rights of millions of Americans should be defended, most Democratic politicians have treated our equal marriage rights as at best, an unfortunate 'diversion' in their election campaigns," said Andy Thayer, National Action Coordinator for DontAmend.com.

In addition to Kerry, other leading Democrats in Massachusetts are in the forefront of a move which could once again ban gay marriage there as early as 2006, and in response to the July 14th Senate victory over the Federal Marriage Amendment, Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, avidly courted the religious right:


"Marriage is a sacred union between men and women. That is what the vast majority of Americans believe. It's what virtually all South Dakotans believe. It's what I believe. In South Dakota, we've never had a single same-sex marriage, and we won't have any... There is no confusion. There is no ambiguity."