GARDEN GROVE : Street Closing for Gay Protest of Veto
Police will close Garden Grove Boulevard between Harbor Boulevard and Euclid Street tonightfrom 7 to midnight because of a large protest planned over Gov. Pete Wilson’s veto last weekend of a gay rights bill.
Similar protests this week in Los Angeles and Northern California turned disruptive and sometimes violent. But Dave Barton, an organizer of the rally with ACT UP Orange County, said: “This will be a peaceful protest.”
He said his AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power expects that “this is going to be the biggest turnout from the gay community in Orange County that we have ever experienced.”
The protest is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. at the Carl’s Jr. restaurant at Garden Grove and Harbor boulevards.
The closure of Garden Grove Boulevard will certainly cause some disruption in traffic in the commercial-residential area, police said.
“It’s Saturday night, so you could take your guess from there on how much,” Officer Mark Hutchinson said. “We have a lot of traffic that goes down Garden Grove Boulevard.”
Barton said there may be some resentment from local motorists, but added: “That doesn’t really matter. . . . If they can’t get through onto their street, they may understand what it’s like for us (in the gay community) not to be able to get through life a lot of times.”
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