At Wednesday
night’s rally in West Hollywood, Los Angeles Gay and
Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean invited the crowd to
join her Thursday at 2 p.m. at Los Angeles’s
Mormon Temple. And join they did. Some 2,000 people lined
the sidewalk in front of the temple, located just
outside of Century City, waving banners, talking to
the press, and screaming “Shame on you”
as church members looked on from behind the temple’s
gates.
At Wednesday
night’s rally in West Hollywood, Los Angeles Gay and
Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean invited the crowd to
join her Thursday at 2 p.m. at Los Angeles’s
Mormon Temple.
Some 2,000 people
lined the sidewalk in front of the temple,
located just outside of Century City, waving banners,
talking to the press, and screaming “Shame on
you” as church members looked on from behind
the temple’s gates.
Local camera
crews surrounded the demonstration. CNN and MSNBC broadcast
live coverage online.
The message was
simple -- the Mormon Church raised, depending on
estimates, anywhere from 48% to 73% of the money behind the
effort to pass Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage
in the state of California.
According to
demonstrators and volunteers from the No on 8 campaign, the
Mormon Church violated laws governing the
church’s tax-exempt status by involving itself
financially in a political battle. Protesters
stood in front of the temple with signs urging that the
denomination be taxed.
Thursday morning,
links
to a website petition to tax the Mormon Church
were circulated via e-mail and social networking
sites.
Jean and other No
on 8 staffers took advantage of the media attention
Thursday to launch a new initiative. InvalidateProp8.org
will take donations to overturn the marriage ban, and
donations will be made in the name of Mormon church
President Thomas Monson.
Following the
demonstration several protesters once again took it to the
street, this time in the Westwood neighborhood, near the
University of California, Los Angeles, campus. At one
point some protesters sat down in the middle of
Wilshire Boulevard, prompting police to divert
traffic.
CNN followed this
march, like yesterdays,via a live feed on its Website.
The march eventually gained momentum and again headed back
for West Hollywood -- a four mile hike, much of it
during rush hour.
Talk radio hosts
briefly mentioned an altercation between members of the
church and protesters during late night programs on
Thursday, but these reports are as yet unconfirmed.
(Ross von Metzke, The Advocate)
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