Three days before Massachusetts becomes the first state to license gay “marriages,” a coalition of pro-family and Christian groups gathered around the historic Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mass, to speak their voice on the recent turnout of events, Friday, May 14, 2004.

"We want people to know that the fight has just begun," said Kristian Mineau, the recently appointed head of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which helped organize the rally.

Other organizations in attendance were the Heritage Alliance, CatholicVote.org and the Coalition for Marriage.

While the rally commenced in a peaceful and prayerful manner, there were four bold goals listed by the organizers:

· Protest judicial tyranny and the growing judge-ocracy!

· Send a message to tens of thousands of pro-family activists across the state and nation that the fight WILL continue!

· Tell the politicians, judges, media and opposition now that we won't be discouraged, won't go away, and that we WILL continue to exercise OUR constitutional rights!

· Stand up for democracy, morality, freedom and faith!

Speakers to the event included Dr. Alan Keyes and Sandy Rios – former president of Concerned Women of America. Throughout the 2-hour rally, the group sang Patriotic songs and Christian hymns, calling on the hands of God to give them strength.

The protestors wore yellow stickers that read, “Don’t tread on me,” as a reference to what they called “the Supreme Judicial Court’s illogical, illegal and immoral edict.” The group lamented that the state judges would have the power to decide the landmark case.

"There's a group of people trying to force evil down our throats and defile the constitution,” said Ralph Briggs, 59, of Redding, Mass.

Thousands more pro-family and Christian advocates across the nation are expected to join similar rallies planned coast to coast on May 17.

In Cambridge, Mass, where the gay couples will begin the process of applying for the “marriage” licenses at midnight Sunday, local officials designated a zone for protests across the street from City Hall.

Pro-family groups will also attempt to overrule the Massachusetts Supreme Court at the federal level; to date, the efforts to appeal have been rejected, but according to the Liberty Counsel, there are several scheduled sessions in place throughout the rest of the month.

At the legislative level, the state officials gave preliminary approval to a measure defining marriage solely as a union of one man and one woman this March. Statistics consistently show that the bill would easily pass by the voters; however, the earliest it could come out on the ballot would be late this year, and the earliest the amendment could become law is November 2006, opening up a 2-½ year window of a “constitutional train wreck.”

At the executive level, the Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had made a series of requests to stay or overturn the Court ruling. While his attempts were unsuccessful, Romney managed to limit the licenses to his own state by citing a 1913 law. Romney thereby ordered the town clerks not to give “marriage” licenses to same-sex couples from out of state, explicitly saying that such “marriages” will be “null and void.”





Pauline J.Chang
Ecumenical Press