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Loading ...Gay rights rallies nationwide over Calif. ban
11.15.2008 5:58pm EST
Gay rights supporters waving rainbow colors marched, chanted and danced in cities coast to coast Saturday to protest the California vote that banned gay marriage there and urge supporters not to quit the fight for the right to wed.
Many cast it as a civil rights issue.Crowds gathered near public buildings in small communities and major cities including New York, San Francisco and Chicago to vent their frustrations, celebrate gay relationships and renew calls for change.
“Civil marriages are a civil right, and we’re going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens,” Karen Amico said in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading “Don’t Spread H8″.
“We are the American family, we live next door to you, we teach your children, we take care of your elderly,” said Heather Baker a special education teacher from Boston who addressed the crowd at Boston’s City Hall Plaza. “We need equal rights across the country.”
Massachusetts and Connecticut, which began same sex weddings this past week, are the only two states that allow gay marriage. All 30 states that have voted on gay marriage have enacted bans.
Protests following the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, have sometimes been angry and even violent, and demonstrators have targeted faiths that supported the ban, including the Mormon church.
However, representatives of Join the Impact, which organized Saturday’s demonstrations, asked supporters to be respectful and refrain from attacking other groups during the rallies.
Seattle blogger Amy Balliett, who started the planning for the protests when she set up a Web page three days after the California vote, said persuasion is impossible without civility.
“If we can move anybody past anger and have a respectful conversation, then you can plant the seed of change,” she said.
Balliett said supporters in 300 cities in the U.S. and other countries were holding marches, and she estimated 1 million people would participate, based on responses at the Web sites her group set up.
“We need to show the world when one thing happens to one of us, it happens to all of us,” she said.
The protests were widely reported to be peaceful and the mood in Boston was generally upbeat, with attendees dancing to the song “Respect.” Signs cast the fight for gay marriage as the new civil rights movement, including one that read “Gay is the new black.”
But anger over the ban and its backers was evident at the protests.
One sign in Chicago read: “Catholic Fascists Stay Out of Politics.”
“I just found out that my state doesn’t really think I’m a person,” said Rose Aplustill, 21, a Boston University student from Los Osos, Calif., who was one of thousands at the Boston rally.
In San Francisco demonstrators took shots at some religious groups that supported the ban, including a sign aimed at the Mormon church and its abandoned practice of polygamy that read: “You have three wives; I want one husband.”
Chris Norberg, who married his partner in June, also referred to the racial divisions that arose after exit polls found that majorities of blacks and Hispanics supported the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
“They voted against us,” Norberg said.
Demonstrators in Washington marched from the U.S. Capitol through the city carrying signs and chanting “One, two, three, four, love is what we’re fighting for!”
A public plaza at the foot of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge was packed by a cheering crowd, including people who waved rainbow flags and wore pink buttons that said “I do.”
Protests were low-key in North Dakota, where people lined a bridge in Fargo carrying signs and flags.
Mike Bernard, who was in the crowd at City Hall in Baltimore, said Proposition 8 could end up being a good thing for gay rights advocates.
“It was a swift kick in the rear end,” he said.
In Chicago, Keith Smith, 42, a postal worker, and his partner, Terry Romo, 34, a Wal-Mart store manager, had photos of their wedding ceremony which they held even though gay marriage is not legal in Illinois.
“We’re not going to wait for no law,” Smith said. “But time’s going to be on our side and it’s going to change.”
I am so grateful to live in Canada. I was finaly able to marry my husband of 22 years (recently in BC with no fear of takeback) and can’t imagine giving that up. I find it very hard to believe that your rights in the most (apparently) free country in the world are subject to others approval. Why does who you love matter to someone who doesn’t even know you? Who knows, but please don’t give up the fight. New gays need to always see the banner “We are welcome” regardless of where they come from in this country.
The ban will not stand.
Tiger Tzu: You saved me plenty of typing; I totally agree with your comments.
As I type this, I’m in the process of posting 27 photos from the protest in front of San Francisco’s City Hall on my Flickr site.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Helen Westovers of the world: Your atrocious prostitution of dogma, and the religious agenda of hate is what’s fueling this movement; the more venom that you spew, the mored united and determined we and our sympathizers will become.
JoinTheImpact-NYC was massive! Here is a link to my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN69bvCYPM4
GREETINGS FROM DOVER, DELAWARE-OUR GROUP WAS SMALL-30 -BUT VERY PROUD AND VOCAL. WHEN DO WE DO IT AGAIN !! MANY CARS GOING BY HONKED IN OUR FAVOR.HAD A BLAST !!LETS ORGANIZE ABIT BETTER NEXT TIME .
I have not heard anything about any protests in Florida. Does anyone know anything about this? Is there a schedule of events and if so where can I find one. I really want to be more pollitically involved. There was a comment earlier about how this is a was and that peaceful protests will not get us anywhere and I agree with that to an extent, but I would like to try the peaceful option first. please let me know.
TigerTzu:
I agree with you. Arguing or trying to convince them is like entering an endless circle, but what else can we do?
Thousands came out in Seattle! I just signed up to donate $8 a month..to my local LGBT organization (Equal Rights Washington)
Hello from San Diego – where the estimate number of those who marched was 25,000. Thanks to each one of you throughout this country for walking with us today. We will win this battle.
This was amazing. I was in San Francisco. Truly inspiring. We’re gonna keep going. We need to take a more active stance, though. We’ve got to fight back and make our cases. Things will change. Just look at all of the people that came out in support for our cause. I’m VERY inspired and I can’t wait to see what happens in the future.
I too was at the Kansas City Rally. Despite a cold day and an inadequate sound system the 1000 people did a great job of protesting our dismay yet not attacking anyone. I came with a 65 year old man whose partner of 40 years stayed home as he could not endure the cold and the standing due to arthritis. I was honored to be in their presence and call them friends.
My favorite sign was “I want my cake and to eat too!” superimposed over a wedding cake with same sex couple figures.
Good job KC!
Denver came out in mass – it was a beautiful day and every more encouraging at the throngs of people that came, chanted, and marched down 16th Street. I am proud of the gay community for coming together. For those naysayers that claim this will do little – our positive voice will do more than your negative one. At least we got up off the couches today to let the world know that we are not going to let them just VOTE away our civil rights. My hubby and I had our two daughters there, we spent a couple of hours last night making signs and talking about the significance of the rally. Our 10 year old was thrilled to be interviewed by the local media because of her “I love my gay dads” sign. If nothing more, the march left an impression on them and for that I am grateful!!!!
After reading the comments by “Butch” Cassidy and Helen Westover, I think it is time to shed a more realistic perspective on things. While it is all fine and good to hold our peaceful protests all over the country, some of us understand that this will accomplish little to nothing in our struggle for equality. The passive approach has given us practically nothing in terms of civil rights in the 5 decades since Stonewall except perhaps in a few isolated regions and towns. Now that we have given our consent and blessing to have our civil rights voted upon, this may also change in the course of time.
What many fail to understand is the with people like “Butch” and Helen, there is no path to understanding and reason. In their limited minds, discourse and debate have no future because nothing we say will ever shine through their fog of religious hatred. We will not convince them of anything no matter how hard we try, no matter how much logic and reason we use, or how many peaceful protests we attend. Those of their kind do not want to co-exist with our kind, but they only wish to dominate and control those they perceive to be “not like them”.
They want nothing short than to place America under “God’s Law” and in this they are no different than the Talibans that rule Iraq and Iran, except in the flavor of their hypocrisy. Their rule would be no different except for the dogma under which they would persecute others, with one committing atrocities for Allah’s sake, the other for the sake of Jesus. In this they are no different that the Nazis in their quest to eliminate the Jews. Their goal is not to preserve the sanctity of marriage or to protect their children. Their goal is simply the extermination of the gay community and all those who refuse to believe as they do. They do not want us back in the closet, they want us in the ground, while they pat themselves on the back for another sinner dispatched, another soul saved and society is made safe once again for the true believers.
Protest if you like. Continue to make peaceful overtures to the religious zealots while they continue their campaign of hatred against us. In the end, this is a war, not just figuratively, but literally and no war was ever won by bringing pretty speeches to a gunfight.
I was there in Chicago when we took to the streets in a huge mass, chanting and waving signs.
The turnout was amazing and more and more room had to be made for us. We totally dwarfed Dobson’s anti-rally and blocked traffic downtown for hours.
Everyone stayed peaceful, at least the part of the crowd that I could see, even when people with anti-gay signs started picketing us, so that was good.
I attended the rally in Kansas City, MO. I am 65 years old and straight and had never attended this type of function before. I was very moved by the people and signs. I stood on the curb with the associate pastor of my church (MCC-KC) and held the church flag while across the street members of the ‘church of hate’ from Topeka, KS stood with the flag of our country on the ground under their feet and around their waist like a skirt. People passing in their cars either honked or gave a ‘thumbs up’ to us.
I saw young people from GSAs in the area with their signs in support. One sign that I noticed said ‘I’m too old to wait for my civil rights’. A friend who is the mother of a gay son who was married in San Francisco went with me. We met another mother of a gay son who was married in LA just before the election. One of the speakers (a young man from GLISSEN) said that he had brought 10 straight allies with him (his co-workers).
I am not good at estimating numbers of a crowd, but I’m sure there were close to 1000. I congratulate the organizers for their good work in bringing so many people together in such a short time particularly the people from the LGBT center in KC and PROMO.
I attended the Houston rally today. It was very heart warming. However, I was deeply disappointed that more people didn’t come out for this. Ladies, you can come out in droves for a Melissa Etheridge concert or a Comets game. Where were you today?