PrideAlliance is very pleased at the turnout for today's Rally for Human Rights at parliament. Despite the limited resources of the volunteer groups behind the rally, over a thousand people turned out to show their support for the Civil Union bill and human rights in general. Participation by many Christians was particularly welcome.

The homophobic Destiny Church, worth millions thanks to heavy tithing of its mostly poor followers, still managed to drag along only a quarter of the numbers they had earlier been promising for their protest. Nearly half of those had to be bused in from other parts of the country.

The colourful and cheerful crowd of human rights supporters stood in stark contrast to Destiny's regimented, black uniformed procession. The fascist imagery of the event was disturbing, including a sea of right arms stretched out in prayer in a manner strikingly reminiscent of the Nazi salute. Fascist group the National Front were openly participating in Destiny's protest - an awkward marriage, given the Front's extreme racism and the large proportion of Maori in Destiny's constituency.

"Destiny's message is confused and ill-considered," said Alliance Party Human Rights spokesperson Vernon Tile. "Reversing prostitution law reform, for example, would only make life harder for the victims of prostitution and push it back underground, while doing nothing to prevent it or address the root cause of the problem, poverty."

PrideAlliance spokesperson Kelly Buchanan added "The Church is taking advantage of the poor and disempowered, offering them a scapegoat to distract them from the real problems in their lives. While they're entitled to their extreme beliefs, they should not be attempting to force them on the rest of New Zealand."

ENDS

PrideAlliance is an autonomous network; its statements do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Alliance Party as a whole.
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