Thousands gather in LA to protest gay marriage ban

Los Angeles: Several thousand people gathered in Los Angeles on Saturday evening to protest a voter-approved ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage in California.

A diverse crowd, estimated at 5,000, stretched for blocks in the Silver Lake district, east of Hollywood, carrying signs and chanting against Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that bars the state from recognising same-sex marriages.

The measure overturned a California Supreme Court ruling in May that refusing homosexuals the right to marry violated the state constitution. Voters in Florida and Arizona joined California on Tuesday in banning same-sex marriages.

Dozens of states have similar laws. Only two US states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, allow same-sex marriage.