 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has pulled out as keynote speaker for a gay rights group's fundraising event following intense lobbying from transgender activists angry over the group's stand on a federal gay rights bill.
Villaraigosa was scheduled to headline the Human Rights Campaign dinner scheduled for Saturday night in San Francisco. San Francisco city officials and many prominent gay rights leaders already had agreed not to attend the event, which has been billed as a fundraiser to help defeat a November ballot measure that would again ban same-sex marriage in California.
The Human Rights Campaign is one of the nation's most prominent gay rights organizations. Many transgender activists and their allies have been angry at the group since the fall, when its leaders agreed to support a federal job discrimination ban that protected gays, lesbians and bisexuals _ but not transgender people. |
