Gays and lesbians protest outside Bush fund-raiser

A group of angry gays and lesbians joined a larger group of protesters in voicing their opposition to President Bush's policies outside a New York City hotel Monday night where a campaign fund-raiser for the president was taking place. The protesters lined police barricades a block from the Sheraton New York Hotel in midtown, where Bush raised $4 million at the $2,000-a-head fund-raiser. "Texas, Texas, antigay, Bush and Cheney, go away," the protesters chanted. Demonstrating against Bush's civil rights record, his position on abortion rights, and his AIDS policies, a number of others waved banners and effigies of the president. At least seven were arrested on disorderly-conduct charges, police said. "Bush has gone to war in the name of freedom, liberty, and democracy, but he is undermining freedom, liberty, and democracy around the world," Carla Goldstein, assistant director of Planned Parenthood of New York, told Newsday.