This week, she said, she began a web site containing the addresses of senators, speaker of the Mass. House of Representatives and the governor, and petitioned her friends to go rally with her.

Though McShea said that efforts to ban gay marriage among Harvard students have been organized by individuals, Lorelli said most of his Harvard friends who agree with him are Christian and “most are Catholic, although there are certainly exceptions.”

Lorelli and McShea joined a group of about 200 people at Wednesday’s rally, according to an NPR estimate. Participants held signs which read “stop the runaway court,” and displayed the symbols that represent males and females.

Lorelli said that demonstrators received largely positive feedback from passersby.

“Many people, even young people, gave us the thumbs up or honked,” he said.

Despite the Harvard turnout at yesterday’s rally in favor of gay marriage, attendee and former Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters’ Alliance social chair Michael J. Chiappa ’05 said he thought the majority of students at Harvard were not in favor of gay marriage, but rather a compromise solution such as civil unions.

“People recognize that it’s discriminatory to not allow any kind of legal union. It’s about civil rights,” he said. “But even at Harvard, I think most people prefer civil unions to marriage.”

A Crimson poll of undergraduates released Wednesday found that 77 percent of respondents supported the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision.