Same sex advocate attacked at rally

Same Sex advocate attacked at marriage rally in Mass.

Worcester, Massachusetts) A same-sex marriage advocate is nursing cuts and bruises after being attacked by aleading advocate of a constitutional amendment to endgay marriage in the only state where it is legal.Sarah Loy, 27, went to a rally organized byVoteOnMarriage in front of Worcester City Hall, westof Boston, on the weekend. The demonstration was oneof several behind held on weekends throughoutMassachusetts aimed at pressuring the Legislature tovote on the proposed amendment.At a lectern Larry Cirignano, leader of theBoston-based Catholic Citizenship group had justfinished leading the Pledge of Allegiance when hespotted Loy near the front of the crowd with othersupporters of gay marriage staging a counter protest.Loy was carrying a sign reading “No discrimination inthe Constitution”. Other members of her group wereyelling “You lost, go home, get over it,” at thecrowd.The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports thatCirignano rushed from behind the lectern and tackledLoy to the ground. “You need to get out. You need toget out of here right now,” he allegedly told her asher head was pushed into the concrete sidewalk.As Loy lay bruised and bloodied on the sidewalkCirignano reportedly returned to lectern, joiningother leaders of the protest in condemning same-sexmarriage and demanding the proposed amendment be puton the ballot.Other members of her group helped Loy from the scene.Loy who is straight and a supporter of same-sexmarriage, had gone to the protest with her husbandDavid. Police have interviewed Loy and others on the bothsides of the marriage issue and charges may be laid.Gay activist Tom Lang said this rally seemed to have adifferent component from others the groups held inprevious weeks. "The CatholicCitizenship/VoteOnMarriage supporters seemed to beangry and aggressive," he said.Lang operates KnowThyNeighbor.org which has listed thenames of the 170,000 people who signed petitions insupport of the proposed amendment.Most of the speeches attacked lawmakers who voted torecess a joint session of the House and Senate toconsider the amendment."Catholic Citizenship volunteers then handed out'Wanted Posters' to onlookers which were printed outwith Legislator's photos and home phone on them," saidLang.Last weekend people who attended a VoteOnMarriagerally in Springfield were told they could not gatherin front of city hall because they did not have alicense. An LGBT civil rights organization had appliedfor a license and was granted one. VoteOnMarriage was forced to hold its protest acrossthe street while MassEquality staged its pro same-sexmarriage demonstration at city hall.Last month lawmakers refused to vote on the proposedamendment. The Legislature meeting in a special jointsession called a Constitutional Convention recesseduntil January 2, without taking a vote. (story) January 2 is the final day in the current session andit is expected no vote will be held, effectivelykilling the measure.Gov. Mitt Romney has asked the state's highest courtfor an order placing a proposed amendment that wouldban same-sex marriage on the ballot without theapproval of the legislature.The case will be heard by the full Supreme JudicialCourt on Wednesday.Unless Romney is able to convince the court to forcethe legislature to act the proposed amendment islikely dead.Meanwhile, VoteOnMarriage, made up of the RomanCatholic and evangelical church groups, has filed afederal lawsuit accusing the lawmakers of violatingtheir constitutional duty when they voted to recessthe Constitutional Convention. (story)