Gay rights protest held outside Warren church

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Image: Protest outside Saddleback Church

Ric Francis / AP

Shelley Kuchta, foreground, and Diane Duke join demonstrators protesting on behalf of gay rights outside of evangelical pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., on Sunday.

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updated 9:45 a.m. ET Jan. 19, 2009

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Gay rights supporters marched outside the church of evangelical pastor Rick Warren, protesting his selection as an inauguration speaker.

About 100 protesters waved rainbow flags Sunday and voiced their displeasure at Warren for his opposition to gay marriage and at President-elect Barack Obama for choosing him to give the invocation at Tuesday's ceremony.

John Einsohn, one of the protest's organizers, tells the Orange County Register that Warren "preaches intolerance while pretending to be a friend of the gay community."

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Warren did not deliver a sermon Sunday at Saddleback Church, and his chief of staff declined to comment.

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