The Bus Stops Here
With the National Organization for Marriage's bus tour expected in D.C. on Sunday, August 15, opponents of the group and supporters of LGBT equality have a counter-action planned
The National Organization for Marriage’s bus tour campaigning against marriage equality for gays and lesbians will make its final stop at the east side of the U.S. Capitol at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 15.
As elsewhere on its ”Summer of Marriage” tour – from Minnesota to Florida and everywhere in between – NOM will also face an LGBT-sponsored event in support of marriage equality.
”The Big Commit,” as it has been named by organizers Aiyi’nah Ford of Equality Across America, Julia Mandes of Full Equality Now! DC and Sean Carlson of Talk About Equality, is set to take place at Freedom Plaza on Sunday at the same time as NOM’s stop down the street at the Capitol.
In an e-mail sent to members signed up for the event on Facebook, ”The Big Commit” planning team wrote about Sunday’s event: ”The Big Commit has always been focused on a peaceful response to NOM’s hateful rhetoric.
”We will join together with our diverse allies and show that we are a unified community that pulls together and becomes stronger in the face of hate. This will be accomplished regardless of venue or proximity to NOM’s rally.”
More than 350 people had checked that they would be attending the event on Facebook, although the Facebook numbers rarely bear close relation to the turnout at such public events.
Organized in most locations by local groups, with support from the Courage Campaign and Freedom to Marry, the counter-actions have regularly drawn significantly more people than the NOM events.
In Atlanta this past weekend, the report from the Courage Campaign was that about 250 people showed up for the counter-action on Saturday, Aug. 7, as opposed to the 20 reported to have attended the NOM event featuring the niece of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
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