On Sunday, February 8, full-time volunteers of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP) joined more than 3,000 mostly-Catholic traditional marriage activists from across New England who gathered in front of the State House in downtown Boston to express their repudiation of same-sex “marriage” and their support for the proposed Marriage Amendment Protection Act, which would amend the Massachusetts Constitution to codify marriage as only between one man and one woman.
The traditional marriage rally and the proposed amendment are a response to the November 18 Goodridge v. Department of Public Health decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which granted homosexual couples the right to “marry” under the state’s constitution. The decision is slated to take effect in May of 2004.
Sponsored by Your Catholic Voice, a national grassroots pro-family group, several important dignitaries spoke at the rally including Boston’s Archbishop Sean O’Malley. As the last speaker at the rally, Archbishop O’Malley predicted that marriage as an institution would be weakened if the court’s ruling is allowed to stand.
In a statement issued by Archbishop O’Malley as a response to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, he decried the November 18 decision as “alarming” and accused the court of casting aside what has been “the very definition of marriage for thousands of years.”
Another key speaker was Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston, former ambassador to the Vatican, and president of Your Catholic Voice. Also at the speaker’s podium were Sandy Rios of Concerned Women for America, Robert Quinn, the former Massachusetts House Speaker and attorney general, State Representative Philip Travis (D) who wrote the proposed Marriage Amendment Protection Act, State Representative Vinny de Macedo (R), and former state justice Joe Nolan. Approximately 250 homosexual activists counter-demonstrated across the street.
With an American flag and an 18-foot red standard, TFP members passed out more than 2000 flyers titled “Answering Ten Arguments Used to Push Same-Sex ‘Marriage.’” Refuting the sophistic reasoning used by the homosexual activists, this four-page flyer was warmly and eagerly received by the crowd, who were noticeably enthusiastic by its straightforward logic and reasoning against homosexual “marriage,” in light of Catholic doctrine. This flyer also announced the publication of the American TFP’s latest book, Defending a Higher Law: Why We Must Resist Same-sex “Marriage” and the Homosexual Movement,” an analysis of the homosexual movement in America and Church doctrine on homosexuality.