20,000 angry marchers take to the streets in San Francisco over Prop 8

It is so wonderful

to see gay people getting angry and standing up for themselves again.  I often have had the impression that the entire community went to sleep during the Clinton years, lulled into somnolence by the HRC/Advocate/WILL 'N' GRACE bullcrap that "we are accepted."

Of course, it's too bad that it took something as horrible as Prop 8 to trigger this.  But hey, that's life in the Land of the Free.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.  -Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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by: QScribe @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 08:40:28 AM CST

Hell Yeah!

Way to go my brothers and sisters! Wish I could there to protest and march too.

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by: Dave @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 08:47:32 AM CST

Protest List...

Maybe you can.  
I don't know where you live. There's lots of protests planned in California this weekend.  In addition theres' a nationwide townhall protest planned for Sat Nov 15th.  Keep cking back to this website for locations:  http://www.jointheimpact.com/
There's a protest today in Chicago against the Radio Hall of Fame for inducting anti gay Daddy Dobson.

Queers United has a huge list of protests today and tomorrow here in California. http://queersunited.blogspot.c...
If you live in or near these cities....GO and be visible:

TODAY:
Beverly Hills
Modesto
Turlock
Ceres
Hollister
Livermore
San Diego
Chico
Huntington Beach
Arcata
Woodland Hills (my local protest...I'll be there)
Laguna Beach
Hollywood (this is the big one tonight in LA)
TOMORROW:
San Francisco
East Lost Angeles (mingle with our Latino sisters and brothers)
Sacramento
San Jose
Visalia

More next week too.  Go.

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by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 10:29:32 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Palm Springs

We had over 500 protest at city hall, mostly married older gay couples and the gay mayor.  One incident.  A Mormon woman was there with a styrofoam cross and it got knocked to the ground and people stomped on it.  Gay men are mostly gentle, especially this generation.  Anger from an an open wound.

Same-Sex Marriage is good for the economy.

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by: CharlesMerrill @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 11:06:18 AM CST

[ Parent ]

It was amazing

I walked in the march and it was just amazing.  The amount of people that turned out was massive.  As we got to the Castro we all started shouting, "Out of the bars and into the streets."  I really wish they would have done this march before the vote.  

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by: Deelishn07 @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 11:15:29 AM CST

I've been thinking the same thing

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by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 11:22:38 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Salt Lake City

There were also around 3,000 protesters at Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City last night, which is really amazing numbers for such an impromptu action...

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by: Acoustic Mayhem @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 11:49:17 AM CST

So now we know the price

To get our premium-vodka-ordering, Abercrombie-wearing community members engaged with the reality that politics isn't so boring after all, just hold a statewide vote on our right to form families.

Uh, yay?

This couldn't happen before the loss, because we've become so accustomed to having our organizations interface with our politicians that they had to fail when the stakes were enormous.

This is great. I mean, it's awful, but it's so nice to see more people grasping that politics is about our lives.

But wait, there's more!

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by: PhoenixRising @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 11:51:15 AM CST

Yes...how blase'....

All we had to do was match the Yesers $ for $ and all would be well.  No one really had to get messy and do anything, right?    WRONG!

Roll up your sleeves... I'm a straight and I am going to march..I sure hope Elllen and George and ALL THE CLOSETED GAYS in the Entetainment industry do to!

Besides all the Closeted Mormons, Blacks, Hispanics etc. COME OUT COME OUT Wherever you are? 

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 12:50:32 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Movement!

This is wonderful.  It seems like our movement has been so placid in recent years, even with major progress in Massachusetts (love my home state!)  But in other places, at least for my part, the passage of all those previous anti-marriage amendments seemed... to be expected?  Unsurprising?  I don't know, something in it just seemed like the order of the day and didn't inspire this kind of protest.  It seems like now we're giving ourselves a little more credit and realizing that we can and should expect better of our neighbors.  The preposterousness of public support for thid discrimination is really showing itself.  It's so wonderful to see people saying "No!  Not acceptable!"

Yes we can!

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by: bluegirlbb @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 12:38:03 PM CST

GO MARCH TODAY!!

SF Marchers are to go to Sacramento.... I am going to one in my town.

It is very important for all of us to ensure our actions result in a victory in the court-our best chance to reverse the elimination of our rights as soon as possible. So gatherings of everyone who supports justice and equality sends an important message to the court that there IS popular support for marriage equality in California. Join your community in peaceful marches and gatherings around the state.

Note: Details subject to change. Events not organized by Equality California.?Most up-to-date listing at Equality Action Now.??

Arcata
2 p.m. Arcata Plaza
warriorflutist@hotmail.com>

Beverly Hills
6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. | LDS Temple
10777 Santa Monica Boulevard

Ceres
10 a.m. | Hatch and Mitchell
Contact: Beth Holden-Soto at 209.576.5207

Chico
1 p.m. | City Hall
Contact: nicolec622@yahoo.com

Huntington Beach
2 p.m. Huntington Beach Pier

Laguna Beach
5:30 p.m. | City Hall
505 Forest Avenue
Marching to Main Beach
Parking available at Act V parking lot at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road Shuttle busses will be running every 15 minutes. Bring signs, flags, candles (or flashlights), whistles, and dress for a cool evening.

Livermore
11 a.m. | 1886 College Avenue
United Christian Church
Contact: Marty at revdocmaw@aol.com

Los Angeles
6 p.m. | Sunset Junction
Silver Lake
Contact: david.comfort@mindspring.com

Modesto
10 a.m.| Briggsmore and McHenry
Contact: Beth Holden-Soto at 209.576.5207

Rancho Cucamonga
11 a.m. | Heritage Park
5546 Beryl Street
Please bring a chair with you! You may also bring a dish or desserts, drinks, cups, paper plates, etc. if you want.
RSVP: patrickmilliner@yahoo.com

Sacramento
7 p.m. | Capitol Building (west steps)
Bring Signs, Wear Protest Shirts. People from SF will be showing up at the West Steps to show support with us.

San Diego
12 Noon | Hillcrest
1st & University
(Parking lot behind 301 University Avenue)
Marching to 30th in North Park.
Contact: 619.251.3381 or 661.713.0520.

Turlock
10 a.m. | Countryside and Monte Vista
Contact: Beth Holden-Soto at 209.576.5207

Woodland Hills
4 p.m. to 10 p.m. | Oxnard and De Soto Avenue

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 12:38:57 PM CST

HERE from a 365 Blog...exerpts of inside view of LA MORMON Temple march.

REPORTING FROM CALIFORNIA
PROTESTING THE MORMONS.
By Ali Davis.

NOTE : There were Mormons in the group of protestors with them!!

365gay.com/opinion/report-from-california-protesting-the-mormons/

I got there only 10 minutes late, thanks to my patented parking technique of going exactly one block farther away from the thing I want to get to than people in L.A. are willing to walk, and things were just getting warmed up. But what a warming! Already we weren't confined just to the sidewalk - the police had roped off part of Santa Monica Boulevard in anticipation of the crowds, one woman had some mostly-audible inspirational talk going on a bullhorn, and the chanting was in full force.

So we chanted and massed and greeted people we were surprised and happy to see there and speculated on which of the helicopters were news choppers and which were the police and held up our signs at the Mormon Elders. I wondered if the Elders could actually read our signs from where they were, but then again we were also holding them up for the news/police/blackwater helicopters, so legibility wasn't really the point....

Lest this sound like a courageous and moving silent standoff to uphold their religious beliefs, let me be clear: They stared at us from behind a fence, maybe 80 yards of grass, a hedge, and a wall. That, other than a press release that I'm sure we all went online to read the minute we got home, was the sum total of their response.
I guess in their minds it was the only safe move. Because if one of them had actually come up to the fence to try to talk to us, he might have been bitten and caught gay, and then it would have been like a zombie movie in there. (Remember, Mormons: Don't assume the head is dead just because it's been severed. If the jaw is still attached, it can still bite and then before you know it you're giving serious thought to getting your chest waxed.)

We moved North around the Temple complex, and the Elders inside... moved around the corner and then continued to stand there and look at us. I keep wondering what was going through their heads. Were they surprised that people might be upset at them after they'd so publicly backed such a dishonest campaign? Did they really think they could throw $20 million in Church funds at Prop 8 without having a few civil rights chickens come home to roost? Apparently so. Surprise!

As we walked, I noticed several men among us who were also wearing the Mormon uniform of white shirts and dark pants and realized that they were not doing performance art. Some, based on their signage, were former Mormons, but some were current LDS members, Elder badges and all, who were there to protest right along with us. I felt bad about the sign ahead of me that read simply "Mormon SCUM."
Realizing that you've been boxed in by the LAPD, all of whom have just swung down their riot visors, really adds a jolt of perspective to your day. I began to wonder how crazy things were about to get, and if I'd be a wuss about tear gas....

As it turned out, today was not the day when I find out whether I'm the sort who pulls her shirt up over her nose and marches bravely forward or the kind who's found curled up on the sidewalk trying to claw her own eyeballs out. The front-liners moved through the crowd to let us know that the police were going ahead to clear traffic, and then they'd move their cars. We got some more chanting going "Gay, straight! Black, white! Marriage is a civil right!" and before too long, we were on the move.

We marched up to Wilshire Boulevard, and sat down again. It was getting toward rush hour in Los Angeles, and we were essentially an unscheduled parade on a major traffic artery. It was sort of like walking up to O'Hare airport on Thanksgiving and mentioning that we'd be taking over a couple of runways for the weekend. Were we really going to do this?
Yup.

We moved east on Wilshire, full of inspiration, grinning at each other with the amazing power of numbers and giddy with the weird, naughty thrill of knowing that we were, collectively, a complete pain in the ass.
One more roadblock and then they just let us have the boulevard. The police rode ahead on motorcycles and then lined up to block traffic on cross streets so we could pass. Initial jolt of adrenaline aside, I have to hand it to the police. We handed them a pisser of a day. Whether they blocked us or let us pass, they were guaranteed to make a lot of people very angry just for doing their jobs, and I never saw any of them treat us with anything but Stoicism. A few of us on the edges tried to call out thanks to the ones who were blocking the side streets for us. Some took it as sincere and but a lot seemed to take it as sarcasm. I kind of get why.

We marched from Westwood all the way to Beverly Hills, then hit Santa Monica again and marched back toward the Temple. It was dark. Fresh marchers had been joining as they got off from work or school or received one of the eleventy billion text messages that were sent back and forth during the protest, and our numbers seemed to be huge..

I'd been protesting in various ways for five hours and I felt satisfied with what we'd done. In addition to making the point that we have no intention of taking Prop 8 lying down, the Los Angeles GLBT-and-friends community sent an important message to the community at large: Mess with our fundamental rights and we will hold you accountable. And, worse, we will screw up your evening rush hour.
We have a long way to go. But it's not a bad start.

Its not a bad start at all....let's keep it up!

Remember: Be Careful Who You H8....It Could be Somebody you LOVE.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 12:47:19 PM CST

[ Parent ]

"Gay, straight! Black, white! Marriage is a civil right!"

 So true, It was true when Loving vs Virginia decided.  All people have the right to Marry the one they love.  This is the message that needs to get out!

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 17:02:56 PM CST

[ Parent ]

What the...

I opened PHB just now and this video started playing automatically, with no help from me??? Why?

Sorry but I really hate it when web pages start making noises I didn't ask for.

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by: dewdrop_world @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 13:06:51 PM CST

I'm sorry

I hate it when that happens too.  It did not self start when I found it, nor when I embedded it.  But later when I went back after this was posted it did.  Seems to self start about half the time for me.  What do you suggest, shall I pull the embed and just post a link?

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by: Paul In SF @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 13:16:33 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Fixed - I replaced the embedded video with a link

Thanks for pointing out the problem to me.

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by: Paul In SF @ Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 13:22:03 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Civil Disobedience

When injustice rises to the level it is now in the U.S., civil disobedience may be the only answer.    

Decades more of abuse? - OR - Stonewall.  Nationwide.  NOW!

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by: John Bisceglia @ Sun Nov 09, 2008 at 01:32:37 AM CST