 |
 |
| Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America, demonstrates against the Equality Forum celebration in Philadelphia in 2005. He was one of 11 conservative activists arrested at another anti-gay protest in 2004. (Photo by Joseph Kaczmarek/AP) |
|
|
| | |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO J COMMENTS
 
continued...
events in the city throughout the year, sponsors the Outfest event.
Court records show that police officers assigned to patrol the 2004 Outfest event ordered the Repent America members to move to the perimeter of the multi-block street festival after crowds of gay participants began to shout at them and police became worried about a possible violent clash. Police also ordered a group of Outfest volunteers to stop blocking the Repent America members from entering the festival site.
In anticipation of the Repent America members attending the event, Outfest volunteers came armed with large, pink Styrofoam boards shaped like angel’s wings, which they used to block the Repent America members from approaching the festival’s main stage, according to an account by Voltz.
Police said the Outfest volunteers complied with their order but the Repent America members did not. Instead, the Repent America members, led by organizer Michael Marcavage, walked in a different direction than the one police directed them to follow. Marcavage told police he would not go to the perimeter of the event, as requested by police, and he lied down in the street.
It was at that point that police inspector James Tiano ordered his officers to place the Repent America members under arrest.
The Repent America members were held for 21 hours before being released on their own recognizance. A municipal court judge affirmed the charges, but Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe later dismissed all charges against each of the 11 defendants. In a verbal ruling from the bench, Dembe said the evidence did not rise to the level needed to proceed with a full prosecution.
In October 2005, Repent America filed a lawsuit against the city and Philly Pride, naming Price and Volz as defendants, accusing the parties of engaging in a conspiracy to violate the civil rights and free-speech rights of the 11 arrested persons. On Jan. 18 of this year, a federal district court judge dismissed the case, saying Philly Pride and Outfest had a constitutional right to bar Repent America and other groups from joining the festival site if those groups promoted a “contrary” message from that espoused by Outfest.
In what activists have viewed as an ironic twist, the appeals court cited as precedent the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Group of Boston. In that ruling, the high court said conservative, Catholic organizers of Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade had a constitutional, free-speech right to bar the gay Catholic group from marching in the parade because the gay group’s message was contrary to the Catholic group’s message.
Repent America says it will appeal the de
| 
