Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pulled out as keynote speaker for a gay rights group's fundraising event scheduled for Saturday night following intense lobbying from transgender activists angry over the group's stand on a federal gay rights bill.

Villaraigosa was scheduled to headline the Human Rights Campaign dinner scheduled for Saturday night in San Francisco. San Francisco city officials and many prominent gay rights leaders already had agreed not to attend the event, which has been billed as a fundraiser to help defeat a November ballot measure that would again ban same-sex marriage in California.

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