Photos by: Michelle Chalifoux

About 100 people stood out in the cold on Saturday outside the Boise City Hall in solidarity with others around the nation to urge President-elect Barack Obama to put his words into action and support equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

The rally was to show opposition to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage only as union between heterosexuals. Organizers documented 110 signatures on petitions that will be forwarded to President-elect Barrack Obama reminding him of his promise to repeal DOMA.

Many present spoke out against the military’s so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and called for the passage of federal laws banning hate crimes and workplace discrimination against employees because of their sexual orientation.

“What we call DOMA, does not defend marriage, it’s only purpose is to prevent same-sex couples from accessing the same federal rights and protections heterosexual couples benefit from,” said Jody May-Chang, event organizer and PrideDEPOT.com editor.

May-Chang (right) told the crowd that the repeal of DOMA was only part of the challenge facing LGBT citizens.

“Marriage is just as important to our families as employment protections, housing and our physical safety. In most states in this country, including Idaho, we can be fired from our jobs, or denied housing, for no other reason than because we are gay or lesbian, bisexual or transgender,” May-Chang said.

Signs bearing slogans such as “Real family values value all families” and “Gay Agenda, 1. Equality, 2. Equality, 3. Equality!” where held high as Idaho State Sen. Nicole LeFavour offered a spirited speech calling for justice and equality for LGBT citizens in Idaho and throughout America.

“Friends, today as we stand here in the cold, Soldiers, men and women serving in Iraq face worse consequence for living as human beings than they did twelve years ago,” LeFavour (left) said. “They are told today that it is dishonorable to be both patriotic and honest. They are told in US law, something no American should ever be told. They are told that to protect their livelihood, their careers and their families, they must lie.”

LeFavour went on to question the fairness of a nation that “holds up gay Americans as heroes in the arts, in sports, in entertainment and even politics, and then with laws tells us that in one place we can marry, can have all the rights of our straight brothers and sisters, but that on the other side of a boarder, on a different date in the same city that those rights and duties and privileges, the very keys of full personhood are not ours to have.”

Monica Hopkins, ACLU of Idaho executive director (right), spoke to the issue of justice when she said that Obama and vice president elect Joe Biden spoke out against the bigotry and intolerance of the past and promised that LGBT professionals can serve in the government without fear of discrimination.

“This year we can begin putting our constitution back together and yet the worst economy in generations may become an overwhelming distraction if we are not careful,” Hopkins said. “People who believe in civil and human rights must seize the opportunity to fix our Constitutional crisis and our economic crisis at the same time.”

Hopkins’ comments gained applause when she said that “it is not a decision of one or the other it is both and it is now.” She cited a quote from Albert Einstein, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

She than spoke out saying, “I implore you, now is not the time for mediocrity.”

But one of the most poignant messages came from Rev. Jon Brown who spoke of how he was personally affected by a murderous hate crime in 1985 that left his friend, Dan, dead.

“He was outgoing, gregarious and inventive,” Rev. Brown(left) said. “Anti-gay slogans were part of that vocabulary.”

Rev. Brown, who is heterosexual, said that persistent phone calls trying to reach Dan went unanswered. Dan’s mother eventually went to his house to find him dead.

“He was tied in a chair, an office chair,” Rev. Brown said. “He had 76 cigarette burns on his skin. And he was beaten black and blue all over his body and he was strangled to death with the telephone extension cord.”

He called on others to understand that words of tempt and hatred can lead to acts of violence and even death.

At various intervals during the rally, musical artist (below left to right) Debbie Sager, Rebecca Scott, and Rob Hill motivated the crowd with music that spoke to the moment.

The rally was held in conjunction with the national Join the Impact Campaign that formed after the November presidential election.

“Barack Obama reached out to our community with an unprecedented message of inclusion in speeches across the country and most notably in his “Open Letter to the LGBT Community,” May-Chang said.

She said LGBT citizens have waited long enough to be heard while the voices of intolerance and bigotry have high jacked our political and judicial system in America.

Opponents to same-sex marriage claim that marriage should be allowed only between a man and woman. In spite of the growing evidence to the contrary, they argue that children raised with same-sex parents will cause them to be worse off then if they were raised by a heterosexual couple.

“The time has come and our moment is now,” May-Chang said as the rally came to a close.