Prop 8 Protest Information Thread

[Ghoulish Delight]

A few photos from today:







The gentleman with the "No Special Rights for Heteros" sign is my coworker




Officer Nelson

[Isaac]

More pics @ my Facebook photo album.

[innerSpaceman]

Was that EH1812 at a PROTEST? In a crowd?!??!


Thanks, EH and all of you - CP, GD, NM and BTD. YOU ROCK!
(wow, the straight LoT contingent certainly outnumbered the LoT gay contingent on this one ... what if Isaac wasn't there??? Hahahah)






Ok, after five protest rallys and marches since Election Day ... I think I'm a little done for a while.

WeHo, Mormon Temple, LongBeach, Mormon Temple Lite, and SilverLake. Phew!

I'm gonna go the LHC meeting Tuesday night to talk about ideas of where to go from here, and to channel the hopefully continuing interest in activities.


But next Saturday at City Hall sounds like the next time I'll be in the mood for protest. And Tiki Party Afterwards!!!

[Isaac]

http://www.jointheimpact.com/

[BarTopDancer]

It's down

[BarTopDancer]

Fox 11 had protests as their 3rd story. Showed the protests in LA and briefly showed the one at Saddleback. You can see my [hot pink] sign from afar and they interviewed "baby food guy". They showed some interviewers with actual protesters in the LA area.

[wendybeth]

Too cool, you guys.



I've refrained from saying much on this subject, but not out of disinterest. Truth be told, I'm pretty damned angry. As some of you know, I have a relative by marriage who is Mormon and I've had to put up with some (a lot) of Mormon related stupidity over the years. I am just so over their superior 'we're gonna be Gods someday, and you're not!' mentality and it's been very tiresome, but this goes beyond the pale. They need to pay for mixing their religion with politics- and money is the only language they understand. (They believe that earthly riches indicate heavenly favor). I sincerely hope the IRS does go after them, along with the Catholic church and any other church who wants to play this sort of game. I have no problem with other's beliefs, but when they seek to legislate from the pulpit and hurt people I care about, it makes them the enemy and I will do whatever I can to defeat them in their aims.

[Tenigma]

Originally Posted by Gn2Dlnd

That's what's going to turn this thing around, not screaming in their faces.

I read the following with interest:

Four Lessons Gay Marriage Actvists Must Learn From Obama

from Huffington Post by Lee Stranahan

Barack Obama won a historic and overwhelming victory. It's too bad the proponents of gay marriage don't seem to have learned much about how and why he won.

I am in total agreement with those who want gay marriage to be legal. They are right. Being right isn't enough.

In fact, many progressives have found an odd sort of contentment in being grumbling angry losers for years because they were so damn right. Now that Obama has lit the path for being both right and effective, it's time tor the conservatives to be the grumbling losers and time for progressives to chalk up victories on issues important to them by applying the lessons of this election.

1) Anger Loses
The protests and expressions of anger on the part of the GLBT community and their friends and family have been impressive. Thousands of people have taken to the street and their anger is justified. I don't think it's smart, however. I see no evidence at all that it's going to help advance the cause of gay rights.

If anger won elections, John McCain and Sarah Palin would now be the king and queen of America. McCain was practically bursting blood vessels in the last few speeches of the election and he lost in a landslide. Anger turned off the independents at the same time it fired up the base.

Just because anger is justified doesn't mean it's wise. That's where discipline comes in. As Obama said repeatedly, "Don't boo - vote." In other words, channel your emotions into something more productive then the easy road of making loud noises.

WWOD? The McCain campaign threw a fresh pack of lies at Obama every chance they got. The number of death threats towards him increased as the angry McCain campaign cranked up the rhetoric. If anyone was justified in their anger, it would have been Barack Obama. He could have struck back in anger and fired up the Democratic base to take to the streets to protest racism and lies.

Obama could have gotten angry.. He didn't. He won. We all won.

2) Get Organized
The No On 8 people have shown they can get big numbers out to a rally. So why couldn't they run an effective ad campaign, send out a clear message or win the election?

The Yes on 8 crowd had the advantage of a built in organizing system in the churches. It's the same organizational structure that explains why Fireproof, a Christian themed, ultra low budget movie with Kirk Cameron as the lead has grossed more than Oliver Stone's 'W'. Churches are good at getting groups of people to do things en masse. That's not a bad thing; it sure helps when they do charity work.

And the ability to organize people isn't a left / right thing; black churches helped Obama. There's a similar secular power with unions or groups like the National Rifle Association. None of it was harnessed by the people in favor of gay marriage to any significant degree.

Without that structural advantage, the pro gay marriage crowd needed to work harder and not be self satisfied. The forces that defeated gay marriage in California did what Obama did; they organized a diverse group of voters and got them out to the polls.

3) Outreach Works
Barack Obama showed that reaching beyond the base can yield big results. I haven't seen much evidence that the people who support gay marriage did much more than reach out to the people who already support gay marriage. In fact, rallies that have protesters yelling 'Mormon scum!' are negative outreach.

What if the gay community reached out to the black, Latino and Mormon communities that voted against gay marriage? What if instead of merely chalking up opposition to 'fear and hate' they went in churches and communities and started engaging in conversations? Would they meet with resistance? Of course. Would they see fear and hate? Absolutely. Changing a lifetime of thoughts and feelings isn't easy but the election showed us change does happen.

But African Americans, Latinos and Mormons all know firsthand the pain and frustration of discrimination. They have all seen their share of fear and hate. They know the value of marriage and family. The way to expose the things they have in common with their gay brothers and sisters is through dialog, not demonstration.

It may seem like an unlikely alliance but it's just as unlikely as getting a white working class guy to vote for a President whose middle name is Hussein.

4) Pick Your Battles
The Obama campaign showed a lot of discipline in picking which battles to fight and which to avoid. Here's a good rule; pick battles you can win.

The current tactic of trying to fight church tax exceptions is a dead on arrival loser of a battle. It's not going to happen.

Tax free churches have a long precedent in our society. It's a fight that will result in a direct battle with every religious organization in America, not just the ones opposed to gay marriage. Further, selectively going after the Mormon or Catholic church is a slippery slope. Trying to take away the tax exempt status of churches you don't like only makes it easier to take away that status for churches with inclusive agendas, like the Unitarian Universalists. Even that doesn't matter, however, since it won't happen.

Some people don't like the idea of picking battles because they want their entire agenda enacted right now. Well, wisdom says that 'perfect' is the enemy of 'good'. Incremental steps require patience but they work.

I believe that the enactment of Proposition 8 is a delay of the inevitable as our county moves towards a more perfect union. If my comrades will take a moment and learn the lessons of this last election, I hope that delay will be short.

Lee Stranahan is a writer and filmmaker who also blogs about politics at BobCesca.com which may sound like a contradiction but it's not but it is.

[BarTopDancer]

So apparently I was on the KNBC news. But I turned it off cause some stupid Dateline episode was on until waaaaay late. Of course I tried to find it on the interwebs and can't.

[Isaac]

Saw our protest on KABC7.

BTW: it was 300 people. Not near 600 but still a good size crowd.