Last Saturday, days after the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the state’s same-sex marriage ban, San Diegans marched in support of same-sex marriage through central California towns, ending with a rally in Fresno, where movement leaders vowed to win the hearts and minds of opponents.

“Fresno represents middle American values, and we can start changing our neighbors’ feelings about gay marriage beginning right here in the Central Valley,” said lead organizer Robin McGehee, a 36-year-old professor, who married her longtime partner last year. “We’re doing exactly what the freedom riders would do in the South in the 1960s, which is reaching into communities that are different from us so we can all live in equality.”

Paying homage to the 1965 marches in Selma, Ala. that marked the peak of the civil rights movement, the protest, which organizers called Meet in the Middle, began Saturday morning in Selma, Calif., the self-proclaimed raisin capital of the world.

Hundreds of spirited marchers including San Diego Equality Campaign Executive Director Sara Beth Brooks, Pride at Work, San Diego Chapter Co-chair Carlos Marquez, San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality, San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality representative Wendy Sue Biegeleisen and Stonewall Young Democrats Executive Vice President Matt Corrales, were escorted by the California Highway Patrol along an aging highway to Fresno, a city of more than 450,000 and the largest in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.

“We are showing our youth and the world that California can come together and fight for equality,” said Biegeleisen, who helped organize last week’s marriage-equality rally and sit-in at the San Diego County Administration building.

Several thousand people gathered for the Fresno rally, some wearing wedding dresses or carrying rainbow flags, a symbol of support for gay rights.

Many of the rally speakers spoke about creating dialogue with same-sex marriage opponents.

“We aren’t here to impose our beliefs on anyone. We are here to begin a dialogue on civil rights,” said Cleve Jones, a pioneer activist and protégé of Harvey Milk, San Francisco’s first openly gay leader who was slain in 1978. “Harvey said, ‘We can’t win unless we open up our hearts to connecting with people who appear to be very different from us.’”

It was “inspiring,” said Activist San Diego Board Member Michael Anderson after the rally. “It was both moving and motivating. I am extremely happy to have made the trip.”

Cassandra Zamora, 17, said she was overwhelmed with emotion at seeing so many supporters in her conservative city.

“Usually you really don’t see a lot of gay people here. Our parents and our environment don’t let us do anything,’’ said Zamora, who called Saturday her “coming out party” for her father. “It’s like, ‘Guess what Papi? I’m out.’”

There were few protesters, although some skeptical residents were curious to see what all the commotion was about Saturday.

Tom Johnson, 57, a disabled Vietnam veteran from Clovis, a Fresno suburb, said he had never heard of such an event happening in town, so he came downtown for a look.

“I’m against people coming into our community with those viewpoints. I just can’t accept it,” Johnson said. “People already voted yes on Prop. 8. That’s the law and we should follow it.”

Hundreds of same-sex marriage opponents held their own rally in Fresno in support of the voter approved ban on Sunday.

Fresno Pastor Jim Franklin of Cornerstone Church, an organizer of the event, told the crowd that he believed Proposition 8 would likely survive any upcoming efforts to overturn it through initiatives on the 2010 or 2012 ballots.

“They are losing ground. We are gaining ground,” Franklin said. “When people say it’s inevitable, they just don’t understand. ‘The times they are a-changin’,’ and they are changing to our side.”

People attending the rally Sunday wore T-shirts and held signs that read, “Still standing in the middle for marriage,” as area religious leaders and politicians spoke in support of Proposition 8.

More than two-dozen counter protesters in Fresno shouted at speakers during the rally.

As former Fresno Mayor Alan Autry took the stage, the counter demonstrators chanted “Shame on you!”

“You have that right,” Autry said. “We fully expect you to come back in 2010. We will make a stand, and in 2012 we will make a stand again.”

The sight of counter-protesters at Sunday evening’s event did not sit well with some opponents of same-sex marriage attending the rally. While there was shouting back and forth, police said there were no arrests.

Alex Silva, 37, of Fresno, yelled at same-sex marriage advocates who were interrupting the speakers on stage.

“Go home and read the Bible and save yourself,” he said.

On the same day, approximately 300 same-sex marriage opponents staged a rally at the County Administration Center in San Diego, where religious leaders told the crowd that the Bible defines marriage as between a man and a woman, according to newspaper reports.

“Jesus did not allow for the redefinition of marriage,” said the Rev. Michael Robinson of Good Shepherd Church in Mira Mesa. “The marriage of one man and one woman ... mirrors the love of God for his people,” the Union-Tribune reported.

Biegeleisen, who was among 20 marriage-equality proponents protesting the event, called it the “Yes on H-8 Mongers Rally.”

“We feel that it is important to step up our protest and actions for marriage equality to include confronting those who have worked to take our civil rights away,” she said.