Austin KKK Rally Against Gay Marriage

AUSTIN, TEXAS - Ten men and four women calling themselves members of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan gathered at City Hall plaza Saturday for a brief and hugely contested rally against gay marriage.
The Klan group, whose members said they were from San Angelo in West Texas, was opposed by what police estimated to be 3,000 demonstrators. About 200 Austin police officers in riot gear allowed them no closer than 50 yards from the Klan at the plaza on Cesar Chavez Street.
Police Chief Stan Knee said surrounding streets were blocked to create "safety zones" to "allow us to maintain control," a strategy he said was successful. Two helicopters, one from the Austin Police Department and the other from the Texas Department of Public Safety, circled above.
There was no reported violence; two demonstrators were arrested.
At the 40-minute rally, the Klan showed its support for a proposed Texas constitutional amendment banning gay marriage that is on Tuesday's ballot.
"We're asking Texans to vote for Proposition Number 2," Klan chaplain Steven Edwards told the crowds through loudspeakers set up on the plaza. "Not because the Ku Klux Klan supports it but because God supports it."
Some Klan members, all of whom were dressed in black uniforms or jeans with Klan T-shirts, hid their faces behind masks made from Confederate battle flags. At one point Edwards apologized to the police for "the inconvenience" that the rally had caused them.
Two men from an anti-Klan gathering that Knee estimated to be 1,000 people -- a block east of the plaza, at the intersection of Cesar Chavez and Colorado streets -- were handcuffed and led to a police van.
Knee said the men, one of whom was armed with a club, were arrested and taken to jail for creating a disturbance. Some in the intersection gathering, which included some several people wearing red or black bandanna face masks, were cursing police for protecting the Klan.
Former state Rep. Glen Maxey, who is gay, spoke to what police estimated to be 2,000 peaceful anti-amendment demonstrators on the South First Street bridge opposite the Klan at the plaza.
"Our role today is to stand against their bigotry, their hate and Proposition 2," Maxey said.
Maxey, campaign director for the group No Nonsense in November, turned his back on the Klan to speak to the bridge demonstrators, who carried signs with messages such as "keep Austin tolerant" and "selectively denying rights is prejudice."
After Maxey finished speaking, some of the bridge demonstrators chanted "Klan, go home."
The demonstrations were mainly peaceful, "and the community can be very proud of that," Knee said afterwards.
from Austin American Statesman