1157
(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)
Written by John Quinlan, Contributing writer
Jul 14, 2010
Efforts are underway to generate a large grassroots protest to meet the National Organization for Marriage’s anti-gay “Summer for Marriage” tour when it arrives in Madison on Tuesday, July 27, for a noon rally at the State Street entrance of the Capitol. A coalition-based counter-rally and march in support of the freedom to marry will begin at 11 a.m. on the UW-Madison’s Library Mall, in the 700 block of State Street, proceeding up State Street to the Capitol.
“Everywhere that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) caravan goes, they need to be shown that they do not represent majority opinion,” coalition leader Jesse Otradovec, with the Queer Student Alliance, said. “Our highest hope is that if we’re successful and we can significantly outnumber them when they come to Madison, we can be a force for turning back this tour.”
Spurred on by a recent federal court decision in Boston that found much of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, NOM has launched a bus tour across 17 states and the District of Columbia to protect marriage. July 27 is the caravan’s only stop in Wisconsin.
In NOM’s call to action, the organization declared that this is an urgent time for marriage, that a strong marriage
makes a strong family and that groups of these strong families make strong neighborhoods and strong towns, cities, and states.
Freedom to Marry communications director Sean Eldridge said he wants the rally to be more than a counter-protest.
This is “a positive campaign to show Americans supporting the right of all persons to marry,” he said. “Freedom to Marry has always believed that the best way to change hearts and minds is to break the silence, spark conversations and share personal stories about why marriage matters to same-sex couples and their families. But we also know that we cannot allow the distractions, distortions, and discriminatory agenda of groups like NOM to go unanswered, Eldridge said.
FreedomtoMarry.org is acting as a clearinghouse for those seeking to connect with local efforts. The organization asks participants to register at that Web site in support of all efforts nationwide.
As of press time, the coalition was still coming together, but included the UW-Madison’s Queer Student Alliance, UW-Whitewater’s direct action group Impact and OutReach, Madison’s LGBT community center, in addition to grassroots groups in Milwaukee and statewide.
For more information, write to
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, or call OutReach at 608-255-8582.
