Eric Alva, a gay Marine veteran who lost a leg during combat in
the Iraq War, was booed last week as he testified in support of a
gay-inclusive anti-discrimination ordinance in San Antonio, Texas.
“I told people how I lost my leg and fought for the rights and
freedoms of the people in our country, not just those who were
sitting there with their bibles and their crosses in opposition to
the ordinance,” Alva
told BuzzFeed.com. “Without this ordinance I can be denied
from applying for a job or thrown out of an establishment, regardless
of [whether] I'm a purple heart recipient or a wounded warrior. As
soon as I said that the crowd started booing me.”
“To all you people that preach the word of God, shame on you
because God loves me, like the day I laid bleeding on the sands of
Iraq,” Alva told the crowd. “And that's why he saved me!”
According to the San
Antonio-News, roughly 300 opponents of the measure
demonstrated outside city hall ahead of the hearing.
“We need our prayers to touch our council members,” Pastor
Charles Flowers told the crowd. “Let them vote 'no' to this
ordinance, and 'yes' to the reign of the kingdom of God.”
The ordinance became a hot button issue after Christian
conservatives on talk radio and the Internet claimed that it would
discriminate against Christians who are opposed to same-sex unions.
Councilwoman Elisa Chan, a Republican, also created controversy
when an audio recording of her describing gays as “disgusting”
surfaced on Thursday.
(Related: Elisa
Chan, San Antonio councilwoman, calls gays “disgusting.”)