Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), rallied hundreds of gay marriage
opponents gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol on Thursday.
“Proponents of same-sex marriage want
us to believe that this is inevitable, this is going to come no
matter what we do, so we might as well pack up, go back to our homes
and stop fighting. We will never stop fighting for the truth!”
Brown told the crowd in the Rotunda.
The crowd, estimated at 750, also heard
from local clergy, professors and Republican lawmakers opposed to
marriage equality.
“Manmade laws cannot change the
natural order of things,” Sam Crabtree, executive pastor of
Bethlehem Baptist Church, told the crowd. “This weekend, by
legislation, we will change our clocks to daylight savings time. But
the sun will still come up according to its nature. The tides will
still come in and go out, with total disregard for manmade laws.
Marriage is what it is.”
At a press conference last week,
Representative Karen Clark and Senator Scott Dibble, the measure's
champions in the House and Senate respectively, unveiled the
long-expected bill which seeks to make Minnesota the 10th
state to legalize marriage equality. The move comes 4 months after
Minnesota voters became the first in the nation to reject a
constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual unions.
(Related: 3
year old at Minnesota gay marriage conference steals the show.)
The measure is expected to clear
committees in the House and Senate next week.
(Related: Gay
marriage bill likely to clear Minnesota legislative committees next
week.)
Holding a sign which read “One Man +
One Woman / Don't Lie to Children,” Barbara Roub told the Pioneer
Press: “I have a grandson who's homosexual. I love him
very much, but my heart is really burdened for his lifestyle. I see
the culture just becoming more and more accepting of lifestyles that
don't fit God's plan.”
Other signs spotted at the event
included “The legalization of homosexuality would kill 7 to 9x more
children” and “The legalization of homosexuality induce [sic]
children to gay relationships,” GoodAsYou.org
reported.