Soulforce calls
out Senator Frist in his hometown

Soulforce is taking its cause to the boyhood streets of Senate majority leader Bill Frist, the man responsible for reintroducing the controversial Federal Marriage Amendment in Congress. Ahead of the amendment's vote next week, the gay rights group is placing 16 billboard posters in and around Frist's hometown of Nashville to call attention to what they call Republicans' pandering to the religious right. The billboards feature part of a speech given by Coretta Scott King when she said, "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protections, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages." Soulforce is reminding Senator Frist's hometown that King stood for the full equality of lesbian and gay Americans and against homophobia, especially homophobia in the black community. The group contends that proponents of the amendment, which failed to garner enough votes in 2004, think it's their duty to force a public vote by scapegoating gays and lesbians as threats to heterosexual marriage. (Sirius OutQ News)