Chicago Drops Case Against Gay Games Protestor

During the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Gay Games earlier this year, Michael Marcavage was standing outside Wrigley Field with a sign proclaiming a biblical message about homosexuality in protest against the Games. Although he maintains that he did nothing either criminal or unconstitutional, Marcavage was eventually arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

This month, the day the case was supposed to go to trial, prosecutors decided to drop the charges stating that neither the complaining witness, nor any of the police officers identified as witnesses were willing to come to court to pursue the charges. The case had already been continued from the original court date in August, so that the prosecution would have time to locate witnesses that could testify about Marcavages behavior, but no one had come forward and so the case is now dropped completely.
That, however, is not the end of the story. Marcavage, the director of the radical Christian organization Repent America, is arguing that his arrest is just a series of ongoing anti-Christian discrimination acts by the Chicago police. This new arrest will be added to a federal lawsuit filed by the group in early July, which claims harassment and discrimination by the Chicago Police Department. The lawsuit originated from an incident where several Repent America volunteers were arrested and jailed for several hours, but not charged, for attempting to minister the Gospel on a public sidewalk near Navy Pier.

Repent America was founded in Pennsylvania and is apparently devoted to creating a Christian society by organizing protests and opposes, among other things, abortion, homosexuality and the teaching of evolution. The radical group has had several run-ins with the police especially in Chicago. This latest debacle is just one in a series of arrests that have resulted from protests against gay events.

Marcavages attorney Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel at the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, told the Christian newswire that (o)bviously, these were transparently trumped up charges and as the city could find no credible witnesses ready or able to back them up, the case was tossed on the trash heap where it belonged from the beginning. The case should never have been brought. And now that it has been thrown out, its high time that our city be held to make a full accounting for this egregious and disgraceful suppression of fundamental First Amendment liberties on the streets of Chicago," Brejcha concluded.

Marcavages has even criticized President George W. Bush for being too liberal saying that he is the first Republican president ever to appoint a homosexual to office. Statements like this, Kevin Lee, an openly gay councilman from Lansdowne, PA, demonstrates the organizations militant agenda.

As for now, the City of Chicago has not released a statement about the incident or the lawsuit. The prosecutions case against Marcavages has been dropped unless good cause can be shown to reinstate the charges.