Anti-gay protesters sue city, police

Men claim their religious views were restricted at event in Elmira park.

BY RAY FINGER • RFINGER@STARGAZETTE.COM • AUGUST 22, 2008

A civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the city of Elmira and police charging they discriminated against Christians during Southern Tier Pride 2008.

In the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, James Barnes and Julian Raven of Elmira and James DeFerio of Syracuse claim their Constitutional rights were violated on June 14. The suit says they were prevented from expressing their religious views during “a city-sanctioned event in a public park.”

The event was a gay pride gathering held in Wisner Park and inside The Park Church.

The three men seek a permanent injunction prohibiting their arrest, their removal or restriction of their speech during future events that celebrate homosexuality, according to the lawsuit that was filed by a legal alliance of Christian attorneys.

“It’s a free speech issue. Christians have the same free-speech rights as anyone else in a public forum,” Joel Oster, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said Thursday. The national organization says it seeks to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.

In this case, a person who was wearing a red T-shirt that said “Liberated from Sin by the Blood of Jesus” was forced to remove that shirt if he wanted to stay in the public park. Christians should not be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs at an event open to the general public, he said.

A news release by the alliance says police threatened to arrest Barnes and several other Christians for wearing shirts with that message, handing out literature, holding up signs on a public sidewalk surrounding the event and speaking about their faith with attendees.

According to a Star-Gazette account of the event, Elmira Police Capt. Michael Marrone told Barnes to take off the T-shirt to protect both sides, apparently by trying to avoid provoking a confrontation.

“As we’ve said all along, this is not a free-speech issue. It’s a public safety issue,” Mayor John Tonello said Thursday.

“As we saw, there was already a court case, and the judge upheld the fact that the city and the city police acted properly in guarding the peace and protecting the participants, which is our responsibility,” he said.

Oster disagreed. “This is not a public safety issue. This is a matter of can Christians act at a public forum to express their viewpoint, or can the city force them out?” he said.

He compared it to cases of the 1960s where black people did sit-ins in whites-only areas, and they were arrested for disturbing the peace. “And of course, now we’re not buying it,” he said.

Raven was among four people found guilty earlier this year of disorderly conduct for disrupting last year’s Southern Tier Pride Festival in Elmira. The four protesters claimed their right to free speech was violated when they were arrested June 23, 2007, after lyng on the lawn in front of a temporary stage in Wisner Park.

But Elmira City Judge Thomas Ramich said in his decision that Raven, the leader of the protest group, was being reckless when he inserted the four into the midst of the event participants.

The four were defended by Oster, who said they were wrongly arrested and not allowed to share their message with those in the park. But Chemung County Assistant District Attorney Robert Siglin argued that the case was about public order, not freedom of religion or speech.

“I was at the event last year and this year, and they like to call it a city-sanctioned event,” Tonello said of the protesters. “But we issue permits for people to appear in parks and other locations across the city all year long. This was just another group that has the free right to use city facilities in that way.”

John Ryan Jr., the city’s corporation counsel, was in court Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

In addition to the city and Marrone, Elmira police Capt. James Wandell and Sgt. Sharon Moyer are named in the suit.

*******

JAMES SUNDQUIST’S RESPONSE TO ABOVE ARTICLE IN WHICH CHRISTIANS WERE ARRESTED FOR PRAYING (SILENTLY) IN A PUBLIC PARK AT A GAY PRIDE EVENT:

People’s Republic of Elmira

http://rock-to-salt.cephasministry.com/JulianRavenTrial.pdf

Sincerely,

James Sundquist

Director

Rock Salt Publishing

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