The Harvard students made their way past a police officer on horseback silently watching the proceedings. They were armed with rainbow flags and handmade signs plastered with slogans. “No discrimination in the Constitution,” read one. “God Created Adam and Yves,” declared another.
“What do we want? Equal rights. When do we want them? Now,” gay-marriage supporters chanted over a thumping drum beat.
Inside the State House, outspoken Annenberg chef Larry Houston was making his usual rounds.
Houston, who says he used to be gay, has been lobbying state lawmakers over the last few months in support of a ban on gay marriage.
“No one can deny the negative consequences of homosexual behavior,” Houston said yesterday.
Houston said he has been telling legislators that he was the target of discrimination by Harvard officials, who investigated in 2001 whether he was actively proselytizing to students as a member of the “ex-gay” movement, which promotes the view that people can change their sexual orientation.
The landmark constitutional convention brought out many demonstrators, who, like Houston, were seeking to overturn SJC’s decision permitting gay marriage.
Nearly all of the anti-gay marriage protesters used religious motifs, and a large banner proclaiming “Jesus Is The Lord” was the most visible poster in front of the State House. A number of these protestors held signs urging spectators to say “No to gay marriage/yes to Jesus.”
“I don’t understand how people could dislike a group of people so much that they would do this,” Geschlecht said. “It’s very disheartening. They hate me enough to hold hate concerts. It’s really scary.”
As it emerged from the depths of the Park Street T-station yesterday, the BGLTSA delegation was greeted with a hand-drawn placard outside the terminal, emblazoned with the phrase “Homo Sex is Sin.” Another sign declared, “Sodomy: It’s to Die For.”
The students said that though the signs were disturbing, they were not unexpected.
“It’s there at Harvard too. It’s just not polite to say it,” said Geschlecht.
A few hundred yards back from the protesters, toward Tremont Street, groups of people held hands together in small prayer circles. Several hundred opponents of gay marriage were gathered for a religious show of protest against SJC’s decision. The group congregated around a stage, where reverends, gospel choirs and Christian musicians led prayers.
Inside the State House, demonstrators who managed to get through the doors before the building reached full capacity created a raucous racket. The chambers of the Legislature filled with echoing cries of the crowd, which at one point broke into a rendition of “God Bless America.”
Legislative aides and members of the press looked on as the ear-splitting chants continued unabated through the day.
—Jessica R. Rubin-Wills contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas.harvard.edu.