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Protesters rally at Capitol
Posted at: Monday, March 1, 2004, 10:15 AM
Political foes gathered Monday morning for a show of force at the state Capitol, where legislators will vote on whether to reconsider a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
Senate Resolution 595, which narrowly failed last week in the state House of Representatives, is expected to be debated and voted on again this week, possibly Tuesday.
A House vote last week on the proposed amendment fell three votes short of passage. State law requires a constitutional amendment pass the House with a two-thirds majority or 120 votes. Gay marriage already is illegal under state law, but the ban is not codified in the constitution.
As noon approached and the sun came out after a morning of cold, gray skies, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Capitol. Supporters of the amendment were placed by police on the sidewalk along Washington Street north of the capitol steps. Several gave speeches about the Bible and homosexuality using megaphones. Amendment opponents were gathered south of the steps with signs.
Bill Adams, a street preacher in a navy suit, gripped his Bible and prayed for the amendment to pass.
Adams said that he “did not come down here to preach at people,” but homosexuality “is a destructive lifestyle in addition to being prohibited by the Bible.”
Bill Ball, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in the west Georgia town of Primrose, stood on capitol steps with two other men carrying a sign declaring, “I now pronounce you pervert and pervert.”
“I guess it’s shock therapy because you’ve got three or four seconds for people to go by, and you want to make them think,” he said.
Down the street, gay rights activist Michael Knight, 41, of east Atlanta carried a sign declaring “You call that Christian?”
Some two dozen children from East Side Christian School in Marietta made their way across Washington Street. Cathy Wells, a mother who was among the group’s chaperons, said the children had visited the office of state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), who supports the gay marriage ban amendment and talked with the students about government and the sanctity of marriage.
“So they are aware of the issue,” Wells said, referring to the battle over the proposed amendment. “They can hardly avoid it,” she said as the crowd grew outside the capital.
Wells said she, too, has talked with her 10-year-old son about the controversy. “I tell him that marriage was ordained by God as between a man and a woman.”
“We [Christians] don’t hate anybody,” Wells said. “We pray for them.”
Inside, About 300 opponents of the proposed amendment, including 20 members of the clergy, packed into room 506.
Margaret Aymer, a professor on leave from Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, told the crowd she “heard the dangerous sound of history repeating itself.”
“I stand before you a female, Christian, Presbyterian minister [and] … I come from a people who have had their subhuman status inscribed into the text of the Constitution of the United States of America,” she said. ” … I stand with the [Presbyterian] general assemblies of 1978 and 1987 that ruled ‘there is no legal social or moral justification for denying homosexual person access to the basic requirements of human social existence.’”
Jill Chambers, the only House Republican to vote against the proposed amendment, spoke briefly to opponents of the amendment while sharing a Capitol elevator.
“We will vote for liberty,” said Chambers as she headed to work.
The Central Presbyterian Church, across the street from the Capitol, opened its doors to those opposed to the amendment.
John Huss, a church elder, said his church leadership sent a unanimous resolution to the Legislature last month against the amendment. The amendment would serve “not to protect marriage but to institutionalize discrimination,” he said.
“Not all Christians are on the same side of this issue,” Huss said.
Earlier this morning, at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse on the east side of Atlanta, a small group of about 12 gay men and women gathered before heading to the Capitol on MARTA.
“It’s tough having a rally the morning after the Oscars,” quipped Philip Rafshoon, owner of the gay and lesbian bookstore in Midtown.
Rafshoon, wearing a gold band, said he has had a partner for eight years but never had a commitment ceremony. “We’re going to wait until we have the right,” said Rafshoon.
Stoney Stone, 18, from Chamblee, was in agreement. “I think we deserve just as much right to marriage as the heterosexuals. Love is love,” he said.
The Christian Coalition of Georgia placed notices in hundreds of church bulletins encouraging supporters to attend a noon rally today in the Capitol rotunda in favor of the ban.
“We’re still calling lawmakers,” Sadie Fields, the coalition’s Georgia director, said Sunday afternoon. “We believe the legislators will do the right thing and give the people of Georgia a vote on this incredibly critical issue.”
Dozens of Atlanta Police Department personnel will assist Capitol police with crowd control and traffic, said Atlanta Sgt. John Quigley.
“We’re working with the people there to allow them to express their First Amendment rights,” Quigley said. “We only hope that everybody participates in a lawful manner.”
While one drama brews outside the legislative chambers, another continues today inside the House. Republicans will move today for a reconsideration of the failed vote, a common procedural tactic with high-profile issues. That vote is likely to pass because it requires only a majority, or 91 votes. But because of House rules, another vote on SR 595 is not expected to come until Tuesday at the earliest.
It was unclear late Sunday how many people would show up for today’s rallies — estimates ranged from the low hundreds to several thousand. Thornell said he expects “several hundred” gay rights supporters to attend Georgia Equality’s 10 a.m. rally and stay to lobby House members, who return to the Capitol at 1 p.m.
Today’s Capitol rallies were planned before last Thursday’s House vote, but have taken on vastly more significance in its aftermath.
There was some speculation that House leaders fast-tracked last week’s vote to try to get it out of the way before today’s rallies and ease pressure on lawmakers. Many legislators say their e-mail in-boxes and fax machines have been jammed by messages from supporters and opponents of SR 595.
But the heat on lawmakers, especially Democrats who control the House, has not let up. Twelve House members did not vote and have been the focus of massive lobbying over the weekend as both sides try to win their favor. Eleven of them are Democrats.
The proposed ban passed in the Republican Senate three weeks ago, but was stymied in the House by a fragile coalition of African-American and urban, white Democrats. Conservative House Democrats — many from rural areas — sided with House Republicans and voted for the constitutional ban.
— Staff writers Cameron McWhirter, Milo Ippolito and Mae Gentry contributed to this article.
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