Ms. Sykes, who divorced her husband of seven years in 1998, had never publicly discussed her sexual orientation but said the passage of Proposition 8 had propelled her to be open about it.

"I felt like I was being attacked, personally attacked — our community was attacked," she told the crowd.

In one of the nation's largest displays of support for gay rights, an estimated 100,000 protesters across the country and across the globe attended rallies on Saturday in protest against Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California on Nov. 4.

Last update: 11-18-2008 18:37