Thousands march in NYC to protest killing of gay man who was taunted with homophobic slurs

Pedestrians pass a makeshift memorial for 32-year-old Mark Carson, Monday, May 20, 2013, in New York. Police said Elliot Morales yelled anti-gay slurs before shooting Carson point-blank in the face in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood long known as a bedrock of the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (The Associated Press)

People gather around a makeshift memorial for 32-year-old Mark Carson, Monday, May 20, 2013, in New York. Police said Elliot Morales yelled anti-gay slurs before shooting Carson point-blank in the face in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood long known as a bedrock of the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (The Associated Press)

Thousands of people took to the streets of Manhattan to protest the killing of a gay man who had been taunted with homophobic slurs.

Some of the marchers carried signs and rainbow flags as they marked the death of 32-year-old Mark Carson.

Many chanted: "We're here! We're Queer!" and "Homophobia's got to go!"

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn marched along with Edie Windsor, whose case to win the same rights as heterosexual couples is before the Supreme Court.

Carson was killed early Saturday as he walked with a companion through a Greenwich Village neighborhood.

Police say a man charged with murder as a hate crime shot Carson in the head. The killing occurred near the site of 1969 riots that helped give rise to the gay rights movement.