"That's What Hate Does"

WORCESTER— Tempers boiled over at an anti-gay marriage rally yesterday when the executive director of the Boston-based Catholic Citizenship emerged from behind a lectern outside City Hall, rushed toward a female counter-demonstrator, and pushed her to the ground.

Sarah Loy, 27, of Worcester was holding a sign in defense of same-sex marriage amid a sea of green “Let the People Vote” signs when Larry Cirignano of Canton, who heads the Catholic Citizenship group, ran into the crowd, grabbed her by both shoulders and told her, “You need to get out. You need to get out of here right now.” Mr. Cirignano then pushed her to the ground, her head slamming against the concrete sidewalk.
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As Ms. Loy lay motionless on the ground, crying, Mr. Cirignano ran back behind the lectern, where moments before he had opened the afternoon rally by leading a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

“Heaven will not be heaven if our children are not there with us,” Mr. Cirignano told the crowd, while counter-demonstrators, most of whom remained behind same-sex marriage opponents, chanted “Shame, shame, shame, shame.”

“Four judges do not get to decide what sin is,” Mr. Cirignano said, as a chant of “Let the people vote” began to drown out the counter-demonstrators, who were outnumbered about 200 to 50.

Ms. Loy was holding a sign that read, “No discrimination in the Constitution” and counter-demonstrators were chanting, “You lost, go home, get over it,” when she was pushed to the ground. Afterward, Ms. Loy, in tears, arose and yelled to no one in particular, “That’s what hate does. That’s what hate does.”

Police interviewed Mr. Cirignano, but did not arrest him.

Somebody give this chick a medal. And take note of a mainstream religious leader of Boston in full on, apocalyptic meltdown (to roars of approval from the crowd). Nothing short of the survival of Heaven itself is on the line here. To be fair, they just lost all hope of overturning gay marriage in the state when the Legislature voted to recess the Constitutional Convention without taking a vote.

The State's Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the Legislature cannot be compelled to vote, which--and I get how self-serving this will sound--seems pretty wise to me at the moment as a bulwark against the tyranny of democracy. In this case, 170,000 homophobes signed a petition seeking to overturn the State's gay marriage law, which was created by court order.

Hat tip: Towleroad