KESQ.com News Services

A 69-year-old woman announced Friday that she will not press assault charges against protesters who knocked a Styrofoam cross out of her hand during last Friday's Palm Springs demonstration against the same-sex marriage ban.

Phyllis Burgess' announcement came after a week of speculation and two meetings with the Palm Springs Police Department to talk about possible charges of assault and vandalism.

"I will not press charges and I believe I'm doing what Christ did for us on the cross by saying, `Father forgive them, they know not what they do," Burgess wrote in a blog posted on MySpace.

Burgess wrote that she made the decision after attending an anti-Proposition 8 march Thursday night during VillageFest. More than 400 people took part in the march.

"I carried the cross and the message, `Shake the Hate out of 8.' As I approached the crowd, a big tough biker that told me he was a homosexual said to me, `I am so sorry what I did to you. Can you forgive me?'

"And then he not only asked for forgiveness for himself, but then said, `Can you forgive what we all did to you? You had every right to be there and do what you did," she wrote.

Burgess wrote that she forgave him and everyone else for the incident.

"And at that instant of forgiveness, I knew that he was sincere, and that there was a lot of sorry," Burgess wrote.

An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples were married between May, when the California Supreme Court ruled that banning homosexual marriage was discriminatory, and Nov. 4, when voters approved the amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. State Attorney General Jerry Brown has said those marriages will remain valid.