President of Catholic Citizenship Violently Assaults Woman in Worcester As KnowThyNeighbor Volunteers Witness

Larry Cirignano, President of The Catholic Citizenship Assaults Same-Sex Marriage Supporter as She Holds Sign At Worcester City Hall Rally

At Saturday's "Take a Stand For Democracy" Rally which was organized by the Massachusetts Catholic Citizenship and VoteOnMarriage, Larry Cirignano violently assaulted Sarah Loy, 27, of Worcester as she held a pro-equality sign.(See Worcester Telegram and Gazette) Cirignano, who had just given a speech at the public rally at Worcester's City Hall left the podium area, ran through the crowd and grabbed Ms. Roy by both shoulders, told her, "you need to get out of here right now" and pushed her to the ground slamming her head against the concrete sidewalk, as witnesses looked on with horror.

KnowThyNeighbor volunteers were called to and attended this public rally which was the fourth and last in a series of Catholic Citizenship/VoteOnMarriage supported forums.  KTN volunteer, John Hosty, photographed Sarah Roy as she and witnesses gave their statements to Officer G.F. Wells of the Worcester Police Department. 

KnowThyNeighbor was leading the crowd in chants of "Shame, shame, shame," and "You lost, go home get over it!" and "Remember 1990" as the VoteOnMarriage demonstrators continued with their chants of "Let the People Vote."  We once again had to endure speeches by Kris Mineau, President of the Massachusetts Family Institute, Ex-Ambassador to the Vatican, Ray Flynn, Larry Cirignano and various ministers lying to us about the legitimacy and honesty of the petition drive, delivered their "spin" on the meaning of our constitution and that they (meaning the VoteOnMarriage demonstrators) were only there to defend democracy NOT end same sex marriage.  This rally was alot different than the other three (Springfield, Barnstable and New Bedford) in that the anti-gay demonstrators seemed to be on a whole very angry and aggressive.  They were in a public location and our side had every right to be there in a counter-demonstration.  We were constantly being told by their supporters to remain quiet and they even tried to block our access to the public sidewalk.  One VoteOnMarriage volunteer actually forcefully hit me in the chest and grasped on telling me that I had to leave as I walked along the sidewalk with my side which read, "Start Acting Like Christians."  Having attended hundreds of rallies, I know that grabbing a person like that in this way is a big mistake and I have not seen that sort of reaction from seasoned anti-gay volunteers. 

What was so unusual and calculated about Larry Cirignano's assault on Sarah Loy was that he left the podium area right after he gave his speech and pushed Sarah to the ground, then he returned back to the podium to stand next to Evelyn Reilly and Kris Mineau as they waited for Ambassador Flynn.  This was not your average "heated moment."  This was a premeditated, aggressive and uncalled-for assault by the President of the Catholic Citizenship on a young lady who was exercising her right to assemble, protest and voice her free speech...the key components to our American Democracy.  And wasn't THAT supposed to be what this rally was organized for?  Or maybe Larry Cirignano was not aware of this.

Perhaps we should tell him

Larry Cirignano 617 755-7668  Catholic Citizenship info@catholicvoice.org

Ambassador Ray Flynn 617 269-0909 ray.flynn@comcast.net

Tom Lang, Director

Comments

[John Hosty]

It is outrageous that a man of Larry Cirignano's position would attack someone, but it is very telling of the hatred behind this drive to strip the gay community of it's rights. The only reason he was not arrested on the spot is the officers did not see the attack themselves. Criminal behavior deserves to be punished no matter what side it comes from, and if this was one of our own volunteers I would be as angry about this. The Catholic Church should act quickly on this, or risk being in support of such an act of overt violence.

Funny thing, Mrs. Loy isn't even gay. She and her husband Brian were just there to show their support for equality. I guess that was too much for Mr. Cirignano to handle.

[Ryan Charisma]

but was he later arrested?

he must be arrested, even if nothing comes of it.

He must be arrested.

[Steven Keirstead]

Attacking opponents is the logical thing to do? The Christian act of turning the other cheek?

[John Hosty]

The laws about simple assault in MA are funny. If a police officer doesn't actually see the crime, then the avenue is for the victim to file a complaint at court. Then both parties appear before a judge and the truth comes out, just as if a policeman had arrested him.

The truth is going to come out on this one. We are waiting to see how these people handle this issue before we lay all our cards on the table. I expect that Mr. Cirignano and his cohorts are weighing all of their options carefully right now. One option would be to ignore the issue and hope that the press doesn't take too big of an interest in this. Another would be to try to shade the truth and say that Mrs. Loy did something that would make the situation seem more ballanced. There is too much proof of his guilt, so I am going to say they go with plan A. Of course it may be made a bigger issue from people voicing their concerns too. In that case he may step down.

People are expecting some accountability, and if it is not there, credibility is lost.

[Ryan]

Thanks, Tom, for posting this. It peices together a few things I didn't know - for example, this seemed premeditated. At the very least, he was extremely aggressive.

[jojo]

Anything with "Catholic" in its title is bound to be full of hypocrites.

It wouldn't surprise me if Cirignano was a total closet case self-hating gay along the lines of Mark Foley/Ted Haggard. I'm convinced his violence stems from memories of a little man-on-man action in his past.

[Jerry Maneker]

Physical assaults are a natural outgrowth from verbal assaults that have been the hallmark of many professing "Christians." This incident is a microcosm of the damage that homophobic people do to LGBT people every day; deserves to be prosecuted, so that the truth comes out, sees the light of day, and that as many people as possible see the damage that hate-filled people, many of whom claim to be Christians and represent the Prince of Peace, do to others. The news media must be apprised of this incident; this incident must be given as wide exposure as possible, so that decent, sensitive people can express their revulsion so that, hopefully, the expression of hatred will crawl back under the rock where it belongs, and people will finally come to see that our LGBT sisters and brothers are deserving of every bit of dignity and civil and sacramental rights that is afforded every other citizen in this country.

[John Hosty]

For those of you who do not know that last post was from Rev. Dr. Professor Emeritus Jerry Maneker of the University of California Chico. Thank you very much for adding your professional opinion to the chorus of outrage.

[Cherie Johnson]

I was unaware of what transpired in Worcester, yet I am wondering why everyone is so surprised.

Ms.Loy needs to press charges if she hasn't done so already.

That "man" should have been arrested on the spot.

Thank god it wasn't me or my wife he pushed (if we had attended).

That guy would have been on the ground picking up his teeth.

[Johnson]

Any "man" who would attack a woman, and try and call himself a "christian" is neither.

[John]

"I am wondering why everyone is so surprised."

Indeed. I am surprised it doesn't happen more often. If the Christian Warriors showed up with AK-47's, I wouldn't be surprised.

[musclehippy]

Ahhh yes. As the ol' sayin' goes "give 'em enough rope"!

[tom]

Someone needs to contact the Globe and the local newsstations about this. I haven't seen any coverage oand it is outrageous. Perhaps shining a spotlight on this will serve two purposes: one, to point out what pigs these people are, and two, maybe coverage will have a monitoring effect on the police who have apparently sided with the haters.

[smartalek]

I never buy the Boston Globe in hard-copy, for reasons that will become clear in a moment.
But as of now (close to midnite on the 18th), the first and only mention I can find with a Globe source on the partnered-with-but-not-exclusively-Globe website boston.com is headlined
"Catholic group leader denies pushing activist"
and contains not one quotation from any eyewitness other than Ms Loy herself.

[TomLang]

Hi Smartalek and welcome,

I am really surprised at the Globe on this one. Please read our other posts and they should answer some questions for you. I was doing interviews myself and for the record, I figured out that the Worcester Telegram reporter was a first person eyewitness based on his story.

Today, I put in contact the Telegram reporter, Sarah Loy, the "first responder" and key eyewitness and various newspapers including BayWindows and Innewsweekly. I and one of our bloggers who was at the rally (John Hosty) were able to procure phone numbers of all those involved (individually) and were able to share them with these people.

But isn't that the power of blogs. We are activists yes, but we also have to act a journalists, investigators etc. It is exhiliarating