EPA refuses to
cancel pride events despite pressure from AFA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly refused to back down from its decision to sponsor several gay pride events this month after it received more than 800,000 e-mails and thousands of phone calls in protest from supporters of the far right American Family Association. Kirk Marusak, the LGBT coordinator at EPA for the American Federation of Government Employees, told The Washington Blade that a deluge of phone calls triggered by an "action alert" from the antigay American Family Association temporarily disabled the phone system at the agency's Office of Civil Rights. The e-mails flooded the offices of several EPA divisions, including the civil rights unit, which issued an announcement in May recognizing June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month at EPA. But EPA spokesperson Bob Zachariasiewicz told the Blade, "We're moving ahead with these events as planned. There are no plans to change anything." Marusak said the e-mails and phone calls appear to have been generated by a June 10 e-mail alert by Donald Wildmon, president and founder of the American Family Association, to a list of supporters that the group claims is between 2 million and 3 million. (Sirius OutQ News)