Protesting Prop 8

I covered the demonstration against Prop 8 that was held Friday night here in San Francisco for 365Gay.com:

Friday, when I got on the streetcar to go to the Prop 8 protest at the Civic Center, I had to stand all the way downtown, because what looked like every student at San Francisco State was on their way to the protest, too.

I’m sure some of them were queer – my gaydar pinged a few times. But there were lots of boy-girl couples, young people of every ethnicity, computer geeks and pierced-eyebrow performance arts majors, straight boys clinging to their girlfriends’ hands, giggling young people texting back and forth with friends at the other end of the train, girls in rhinestone-studded flip-flops debating earnestly if they should get off at the Church St. or Van Ness stations to pick up the march.

When I got downtown, it was much the same, only on a much larger scale. The age range had increased, from babies in their parents arms to veterans of the ACT-UP days of the ’80s, from those of us who remember Harvey Milk and watched police cars burning at City Hall, to those earnest young people hungry for their defining moment of protest in the cause of equal rights for all of us.

Maybe I should have expected it. I’d experienced something like it on election day, standing on a street corner with a group of “No on 8″ volunteers holding campaign signs, getting thumbs up and honked horns and cheers of support from grizzled old Chinese men and hip young black teenaged boys, soccer moms and ten-year-olds, bus and truck drivers, elderly women walking their dogs. But the crushing loss of the day after had wiped out that high, and I’d forgotten.

“Gay, straight, black, white: marriage is a civil right,” they chanted. The hundreds of people trapped in rush hour traffic while we streamed by opened their windows and pounded the sides of their cars, whooping in support. People stood in open sunroofs and climbed onto the hoods of their cars, waving signs they’d written on pieces of paper: “Stop the Hate – Repeal Prop 8.”

There were no arrests, and the entire counter-protest consisted of two guys with “Protect Marriage” signs that I read about in the morning paper. No one I know even saw them. And despite the complaints of imminent bloodthirsty persecution from a vengeance-fearing religious right, the only threat I heard didn’t involve any form of violence or destruction.

“We’re liberals, sweetie,” said one man marching next to me. “We’re not going to burn their churches. We’re just going to tax ‘em.”

The rest is here; my photo album of the event is here.

Comments

[Red]

Brilliant. I wish that I could have been there with you, but know that my love was marching beside you.

[Leanne]

That was beautiful! I have a tear or two :)

[Catherine]

Did you see anybody at all protesting against Muslims? More of them in California than Mormons, and many were instructed in their mosques to vote for Prop. 8. I've been distressed that the Mormons have been noticed and discussed and protested against -- and blacks, Latinos, and Muslims have pretty much gone unmentioned.
I don't live in California but pay attention -- so am I wrong here?

[Christie]

It's not about how groups voted. This was a documented longstanding effort by the Mormon church, dating back more than ten years, with a specific, written, aggressive organization plan done through that church to strip lesbians and gay men of our civil rights. More than HALF the money donated to "Yes on 8" came from the Mormon church. The second largest group was the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic group that gave one-tenth what Mormons did.

That's why others have gone "unmentioned," although anyone who says blacks have gone "unmentioned" must have been in a coma for the last two weeks. But it wasn't black people who organized and funded and pushed and flogged this horrible, cruel, unjust proposition. It was the Mormon church with the willing and enthusiastic cooperation of the Christian right.

[Catherine]

Thanks for responding, Christie. The thing that puzzles me, continuously, is the silence about Muslims in America, and the widespread ignoring of their bigotry. It's worse in Europe, but getting pretty bad here. Mosques are financed largely by the Saudi Wahhabi sect, a virulently anti-gay group intent on establishing sharia law everywhere. There are more Muslims than Mormons, and even if you trace pro-8 funding to the LDS, it's important to pay attention to the Islamic agenda -- especially as it is so far below the radar for most Americans.

A small local story:
http://510report.org/2008/11/08/fremont-muslims-vote-for-prop-8/

Bruce Bawer, an American expatriate, is on top of the issue in Europe. Think of it: There is a serious political debate in Europe as to whether or not to agree with the execution of gays. We need to sit up here and pay attention. At least some mention that there was more to Prop 8 than Mormons and blacks and evangelicals.

http://www.brucebawer.com/

European Muslims debate: Should gays be executed?
PAJAMAS MEDIA, 7 August 2008
"Islamists are poking and prodding at the edifice of European democracy in a tireless effort to weaken the system and bend it ever more surely toward sharia."

First they came for the gays
PAJAMAS MEDIA, 29 January 2008
"Sharia law may still be an alien concept to some Westerners, but it’s staring gay Europeans right in the face – and pointing toward a chilling future for all free people."

I hope you'll have time to glance at those two articles particularly. I don't know why the links aren't coming through but go to www.BruceBawer.com and they are listed there.

Regards --

[Christie]

It's because your bigotry is offensive and idiotic. Religious fundamentalism and prosletyzing is the enemy, not a specific religion. Don't post this crap on my blog anymore. It makes me sick.

And given how I feel right now about Xians, really, I have a hard time seeing much difference between the Dominionist haters and their army of god and the worst Islamic terrorist who ever lived. I mean, the KKK thinks it's a Xian group.