Gay activists protest choice for King Day speaker, invocation

Dozens of gay activists protested the Rev. Rick Warren’s speech at the Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative services Monday outside Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Gathering at Jackson Street and Auburn Avenue, they hoisted signs declaring: “We still have a dream: Equality.” And they chanted: “Gay, straight, black or white, we demand our civil rights.”

Warren, author of the multimillion-copy selling “The Purpose Driven Life” and the pastor of an evangelical megachurch in California, helped rally support in California to outlaw same-sex marriage.

“Rick Warren is not a voice of unity or equality,” said Jeff Schade, director of GLBTATL, which stands for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Atlanta.

The gay community, meanwhile, is also angry with President-elect Barack Obama for choosing Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration today.

Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for Warren, said the pastor would not comment before the inauguration. Isaac Farris Jr., president of the King Center, introduced Warren at Ebenezer and referred to the controversy, urging critics to listen to the pastor, who is a Southern Baptist.

Just as Warren began to speak, Sunsara Taylor, who identified herself as a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party, stood up in the audience and held a banner calling Warren a bigot, shouting: “No common ground with bigot Rick Warren.” Ushers quickly escorted her out of the church.