Religious Freedom Rally in Santa Maria

In the wake of the historic Supreme Court of the United States ruling on same sex marriage some in the Central Coast faith-based community are speaking out.

Several people from local churches gathered at one of the busiest intersections in Santa Maria Saturday to rally public support for religious freedom.

“Lately many of our state and federal laws and Supreme Court decisions have been wittling away at that particular right and diminishing it that has been guaranteed for us”, says rally organizer Richard McGreevy, “so we’re here as a group to standup for religious freedom in our country, one of our basic, basic rights that we dearly do not want to lose.”

McGreevy says the SCOTUS ruling on same sex marriage Friday was coincidental and was not considered in their planning for the annual event.

“This rally has been in the planning stage for six to eight weeks”, McGreevy says, “its something we feel strongly about and we decided to so something about it as near as possible to the Fourth of July holiday which recognizes all the rights that we have in our country.”

Passing cars and trucks at the intersection of Betteravia and Miller honked their horns in support of the rally participants, some even shouted words of encouragement.

“Yes its been very, very positive”, McGreevy says, “in a way I was surprised but we have done something similar to this the last two or three years and in most cases its been very, very positive and we’re proud of that.”