Golden Gate Fatwa

From IBD:
Posted 3/28/2006

Diversity: San Francisco is unquestionably one of our loveliest cities and, we would have thought, among the most accepting. Which is why we were so surprised to hear it has told evangelical Christians to stay away.

As absurd as that sounds, it's official policy now that the Board of Supervisors has adopted a resolution condemning a group of 25,000 young people who gathered there last week for a peaceful two-day rally.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Board deemed the "Battle Cry for a Generation" rally an "act of provocation" and accused the group of being "anti-gay," "anti-choice" and aiming to "negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city."

Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who wrote the resolution, reacted as if the city was under siege. "Even if it is done by a Barnum & Bailey crowd with a tent and some snake oil, I think we need to pay attention to it," he told the Chronicle. "We should not fall asleep at the wheel."

"Loud," "obnoxious" and "disgusting" is how Mark Leno, a state Assemblyman from the area, described the young Christians. They "should get out of San Francisco."

Having received such a warm welcome, the group plans to come back next year. But it might need a little help.
Maybe the good folks at the American Civil Liberties Union can lend a hand. If those defenders of freedom could justify neo-Nazis' right to march in predominantly Jewish Skokie, Ill., as they famously did back in 1978, certainly they could bring themselves to defend the "fascist mega-pep rally" (as some protesters called it) that the young Christians have in mind.

Last time we checked, the First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly applied to all Americans, not just those favored by the mullahs of Baghdad by the Bay.