This morning’s planned rally against homophobia has been cancelled due to the rain and wind hammering Auckland. Organiser of the “love thy neighbour” event Karis Vesey furiously tried to find an indoor alternative venue, but all were booked out. The rally was organised in response to the email tirade of ‘pastor' Logan Robertson from Westcity Bible Baptist Church to writer Jim Marjoram, praying that he would commit suicide and calling him a "filthy child molesting fag". It was to be held at a park near the home from which Robertson runs his small church. Vesey is now going to film snippets from those who were going to speak this morning and post them online, to continue the traction planning the event gathered. “In the beginning I had imagined a small gathering of 15-20 people and so would personally like to thank the 202 confirmed and the 102 maybes, and everyone else who had given their love and support to the Love Thy Neighbour Rally,” Vesey says. “It is encouraging as a person who had been discouraged to hold this event by a person most dear to me, who has loved me since I was born, but has not loved that part of me.” Vesey says she did have a little bit of a personal agenda in planning the event. “I organised the Rally so that one day, people like me could wake up and move about freely in a world where we were not people in sexual categories but that we were merely people and faced no fear of isolation and discrimination. “For me, it is the dream that I could one day take whomever my partner would be, home to my parents and that that would be 100 per cent okay, and that they be accepting and loving of this person. “My personal agenda is our agenda. Thank you to Pastor Logan Robertson for awakening the fire within, we had all been asleep for far too long in ignorant bliss.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 14th December 2014 - 9:00am