Brownback speaks at rally opposing same-sex marriage in Summit Church lot

About 100 people turned out for a rally in east Wichita Saturday morning that highlighted opposition to same-sex marriage but also served as a get-out-the-vote push for conservatives.

Gov. Sam Brownback was among nearly a dozen speakers at the event held at the Summit Church parking lot on east Kellogg and organized by the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative Christian organization that lobbies against same-sex marriage and abortion.

The event comes on the heels of a Johnson County judge’s order to allow same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses earlier this month. The Kansas Supreme Court stayed the order – after one lesbian couple got married – but a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU could result in same-sex marriage becoming legal across the state.

Brownback said that “70 percent of Kansans” voted to ban same-sex marriage through an amendment to the state’s constitution in 2005.

“The state of Kansas has voted on this, the people of Kansas have voted on this,” he said. “We need to keep pushing those issues and keep surging … surge forward into the election cycle.”

Brownback also used the rally — billed by the FRC as a “Standing for the American Family and Traditional Marriage” event — to marshal conservative voters for the November election.

“We need to push forward our candidates that stand for this country, that stand for faith, that stand for family, that stand for freedom,” he said. “This faith, family, freedom, that’s the name of the bus,” Brownback said, motioning toward a bus the FRC had decorated as part of its whistle-stop tour. “It’s also the name of the basic American philosophy, guys. The motto of the nation remains, ‘In God we trust.’”

In addition to Brownback, there were brief speeches by a number of other people, including Josh Duggar of TLC’s “19 Kids & Counting” reality TV show and 1st District U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, who described judicial intervention in the same-sex marriage issue as a battle, and “the battle is on,” he said.

During speeches by Brownback and others, some people in the crowd were shouting phrases such as “Equal rights for all” and “Go Davis,” in reference to Brownback’s gubernatorial opponent, Democrat Paul Davis. A man holding up a Davis/Docking for Governor sign was intermittently working his way through the crowd, often flanked on four sides by people carrying Brownback signs.

The man was part of a group of people at the rally numbering about a dozen, some of whom held hand-made signs that said, “Sam wants your Medicare $$” and “Brownback expand Medicaid.”

Before the start of the rally, Summit Church pastor Terry Fox said he welcomed people with opposing viewpoints but asked them to keep the heckling down during speeches.

“We know there’s people from different sides of issues, and that’s OK,” Fox said. “We welcome you here today. But what we do expect, what we do expect is everybody to use their manners today.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2014 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Brownback speaks at rally opposing same-sex marriage in Summit Church lot."