Gay Marriage Supporters Plan Proposition 8 Protests For Saturday

From USA Today:

SAN FRANCISCO -- Thousands of gay-marriage supporters plan to take to the streets Saturday to protest gay-marriage bans in California, Arizona and Florida.

Protesters are focusing on California, where the state Supreme Court declared same-sex marriages legal in May before voters tossed them out Nov. 4.

California's Proposition 8, which passed 52.2% to 47.8%, "eliminates (the) right of same-sex couples to marry."

Proponents of same-sex marriage say its passage has only energized the gay rights movement. Activists are using a grass-roots network of websites, e-mails and text messages to coordinate protests in about 300 cities -- from Fayetteville, Ark., to Omaha.

Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic says he will be covering the protests tomorrow.

Tomorrow, a virally-generated national day of protest across America is taking shape to protest the attack on the core civil rights of a small minority in California. It's a protest to demand equal treatment under the law for gay couples. It's a radical demand for a traditional institution and also a protest against those who seek to impose religious restrictions on civil law. It is a defense of both religious freedom and the freedom of those whom many (but not all) religions condemn.

The Dish will devote Saturday to covering the protests. Please send me stories, anecdotes, photographs, music, Youtubes, and graphics that reflect what's going on around the country. As on election day, we'll try and let you speak via this blog to the wider world, and convey a sense from the ground up of how people are feeling and arguing and acting.

Comments

[republifornian]

this what happens when you try to indoctrinate scholl kids by taking them to gay weddings and calling it a "teachable moment" parents are the ones to teach morality to their children not teachers who have been tasked with a specific curriculum, when gays stop tying to shove the "alternative lifestyle down our throats things might get better, I have never been to one sporting event that sponsored a hetero day, but I have heard of many gay pride days.

[conservativesoncrack]

Teaching "gayness" in school is a made up issue by those that sponsored prop 8. Of course morality is something you get to teach your own children. I would vate in favor of that for sure. Prop 8 was not the way to do it, as it took my rights away (although I expect temporarily). Conversley, you cannot legislate your morality onto me because you are concerned about your kids.

[republifornian]

neither can you legislate your morality on me or my kids, and were was all the support against prop8 before it passed?

[SBrooksB]

Morality is about choices, not sexual orientation. Just wanted to clarify that. Sexual orientation is neutral.

[luvobama]

It's a Civil Rights movement. This is what they look like. Were you around for the first one? It looked and sounded much like this one. Hop on board. We're moving.

[ccortezz]

I guess you prefer teenagers grow up feeling ashamed of who they are, maybe you wouldn't mind teenagers committing suicide abusing drugs and having sex on the down low. Every Sunday during football season is testosterone day

[peacebypiece]

WHAT? EVERY sporting event promotes "hetero day"!!! (Pssst, there are a lot of queers playing sports, however.)

[SBrooksB]

Shhhhhh! Keep your voice down! Don't ask, don't tell!

[MechaMike]

Its funny how you don't see indoctrination of homophobia in our schools as indoctrination.

[Steamboater]

How do yo uupload photos to the Dish? What's the E-mail address?

[ccortezz]

I attended the protest in San Francisco last friday and was stunned by the enthusiasm of the next generation of gays and their friends. Join us tomorrow and take a stand against hate, if we get shoved back into the ghetto who/what will be next?

[johnmorgan]

Wouldn't it have made more sense to do all of this protest BEFORE the election? They might have changed the outcome of the election that way. Now it's a little late.

[conservativesoncrack]

Understood, but it is only too late to stand up for your rights when you are in a stockade being dragged to the gas chamber. We can change this and we should!

[luvobama]

Exactly.

[DontJustFollow]

Maybe if all the drama queens hold their breath long enough the 90% of the state that is straight will finally understand and change their minds?

Maybe you should go on a rampage and burn the Castro and WeHo! That will show
everyone they should embrace gayness.

Remember, no one is telling you that you can't be gay or that you can't be joined with a contract and enjoy all the rights and responsibilities afforded every other adult couple.

Think about how descriminated against the mormons feel when they can't even for a civil union with both their wives? I don't see any gays marching to support the mormons...

[republifornian]

stop making sense.

[cmfrey]

Wouldn't it have made sense to not put a constitutional amendment that disenfranchises a specific group of people up for a popular vote?

[conservativesoncrack]

That certainly could have avoided all this...

Invalidate Prop. 8!

[danzbassman]

Alas, this proposition banning same sex marriage came too late for me! I used to wonder why people objected to same sex marriage, but now I know. This past summer my wife of 10 years left me and is filing for divorce. And what happened just before this? Ellen DeGeneres married Portia!!! Now I see, its so obvious! The gay marriage of two people I've never met, who live in a state thousands of miles away has obviously caused the collapse of my traditional man on top woman on bottom marriage!!

I just don't see how Ellen could do this to me, she seems like such a nice girl!

Seriously, this is so dissappointing and so puzzling to me. How in the world does keeping gay and lesbian citizens from marrying the people they love protect marriage?

If you don't believe in gay marriage then don't marry a gay person! Otherwise stay the hell out other peoples' love lives!

[AngryCitizen]

There is NO turning back now. It is time for equal rights for all gay citizens of the Untied States. Second class will no longer be tolerated. All the way baby.......

[LeiftheLucky]

The rage, the rage . . .

When you see people throw fits because they didn't get their way, it lends credence to the claim ours has become a toddler society.

http://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/why-are-lgbt-people-so-hacked-with-christians/

[peacebypiece]

Unlike the rage that comes from the "christians" who use issues like these to demean other people. Jesus Christ came to this planet to proclaim, "GOD IS LOVE".

Why do some "christians" espouse so much HATE?

[conservativesoncrack]

I think it is obvious. Because they are not real "christians". :-)

[cmfrey]

This isn't about rage. Please keep saying things like "you people throw fits." It only makes us more unified in what we are going to achieve.

The only people turning ours into a "toddler society" are the ones ignoring the separation of church and state.

[Steamboater]

Well, I am enraged. I'm enraged about so-called 'friends' who tell us to hold off, to not be so angry and to wait and waut and wait. I'm also enraged about ignorant bigoted Mormons and a dogmatic bigoted Catholic Church who have done everything they can to prevent us from aspiring to equal rights and keep doing so. They represent the dregs of society and they and their kind of gods can go straight to you know where. We will not put up with this any more and we will rage and protest until we achieve equality.

[luvobama]

If it were my civil rights being denied, I'd be beyond rage. heck, it's not mine and I am furious with the un Americaness of it all.

[truthskr]

Demanding basic human rights is not tantamount to "throwing a fit." But then I guess anyone who would make such an ignorant assertion probably thinks that suffragists should have just stayed in their place, barefoot, pregnant and mute at home, and that African Americans should have stayed at the back of the bus. If there's a place left in this world for such a mindset, it's not America, my friend.

[Steamboater]

We rage because there's people like you who don't take our civil rights seriously. We rage because we are denied equal rights and we will keep raging and raging and raging until we get them.

[DontJustFollow]

Gays in CA have every civil right that straights do. Go to the courthouse and register your civil union, go to All Saints church in Pasadena and have a service and TA DAH you have all the rights of the straight couple that did it before you.

No matter how much you kick and scream, the people will keep voting for traditional marraige time and time again. California has done it twice now and as long as radical judges keep trying to derail our democratic process, the majority of the people will rise up and speak.

Go be gay and enjoy your life.

[dwedge]

If anyone would like to sign a petition against Prop 8:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51025&id=15119-6847635-_et5Rnx&t=1

[conservativesoncrack]

So, what if the majority if people in the state of California were to pass an amendment to the State Constitution that bans all public displays of religion on public grounds as well as prayer or bible studies in schools? What if such an amendement was passed by a 52% majority? Would it be judicial activism for a court to overturn the "will of the people" in that case?

[peacebypiece]

US Constitution:

Seperation of Church and State.

[conservativesoncrack]

Precisley my point. Seperation of Church and State. Prop 8 reinforces a religious point of view, it must be invalidated.

[cowtippor]

what if 52% of the people voted to legalize rape and murder? would it be judicial activism for a court to overturn the "will of the people?"

[conservativesoncrack]

There is nothing in the Constitution that can be used to support such a foolish notion. You are tyrying to imply that those that would harm others can claim rights as I claim rights. This is not even close to a valid statement on your part.

[peacebypiece]

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

when would that EVER happen? Absurd attempt at......what????

[conservativesoncrack]

Interestingly I just realized that what you say here would indeed be met with invalidation, because such a law would violate the rights of the victims to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Once again, if the mob voted in favor of such foolishness it would not at all be judicial activism to strike it down.

[adamsmith3]

You're right. Decriminalizing murder is quite similar to holding a vote on the definition of what a certain group of people can label their state-sanctioned union. No hyperbole there at all.

[MourningDood]

What are they going to do, sit around and fill envelopes with white powder, to be shipped to every church, temple, mosque and synagogue nationwide?

[greeniefromOH]

Don't blame the actions of one nutjob on the entire gay community!

[AngryCitizen]

Who says it was a gay person????

[AngryCitizen]

you are an i d i o t.

[Crozier]

Nigel and I have had a monogamous relationship since August of 1976. In 32 years, many of our friends and acquaintances died of AIDS, many in those horrific years at the beginning of the pandemic that is now in its third decade within our community.

The fact that in Africa, where AIDS is a mostly heterosexual affliction, it took until the second Reagan administration for that Hollywood Hypocrite to even utter the word.

Now, it is clear that Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain and yes, the Union of South Africa and many others are on a pilgrimage toward it with a portion of civil marriage rights, the USA has civil marriage on a state basis in two states, rescinded in a third, and an unconstitutional DOMA law that many keep in place to avoid a Federal Marriage Amendment for Permanent Discrimination.

ACT UP began in a living room of a Yale-educated activist and novelist. Our brothers and sisters were dying, and no one cared except those who loved them...straight or gay. From this meeting of a dozen persons was launched an international movement who aims were more than satisfied.

Maybe this time it was not Reagan......but the Mormons and the Papist Knights of Columbus whose hatred and homophobia have started a national movement for justice that might be emulated everywhere in the world.

[LexKitten]

First of all congratulations on 32 years together : ) we should all be so lucky (and work as hard).

All I can say is that I'm fighting along side with you, and if nothing else our voices are being heard in a way that they never have before. The reaction we are seeing from religious organizations is just a sign that we are making significant progress.

[Steamboater]

My partner and I were together for 24 years. if we had marriage rights, DCS couldn't have come and taken my kids who my partner had adopted 6 years prior to his death. They did so the day after he died and put them back into foster care, and you have those here who tell us not be enraged and not to be angry and to stop protesting. The hell with them.

[luvobama]

Fantastic post. I believe we will see gays have the same rights in our lifetime. We all need to act up until then.

[Crozier]

Did I mention that we have a bright and energetic six year old son?

[dbushik]

So where were all these voices BEFORE we codified hate into California's constitution?

Right now I don't have Rock Band 2 because I felt it was more important to put that cash toward supporting the battle against this outrage, and I have no dog in this fight other than trying to avoid placing this shame on the Great State of California! (I say that in jest mostly, but hopefully my point isn't lost.)

So, again, where were all these voices when it mattered most? I got involved because I saw the polls and the little old ladies going door to door warning people of the dangeers of teaching homosexuality to the children in our public schools (and obviously how blatently absurd that lie was). But where was the outrage then? A protest or two of the kind of magnitude we've seen AFTER the fact might have actually made a huge difference.

I really hope this is a lesson learned by people. I doubt it, but I'll try and keep that hope alive...

[luvobama]

I think we all learned that lesson rather hard. I also think the Obama election was the priority, when what we should have been doing is campaigning for him and against Prop 8. We are wide awake now and it isn't over.

[BandsofBlack]

Agreed. And maybe this giant step backwards will lead to huge leaps of forward progress in the end. It seems to have woken people up not just in the states where gay rights were voted against, but all across this country.

The Mormon church's huge mobilization for Prop 8 seems to have, unwittingly of course, sparked a huge grassroots movement in favor of same-sex marriage and gay rights.

[Hare]

I support all of you. Don't give up and remember today they take your rights away and tomorrow they'll take mine. There will be nobody left to stand up for me so I'll stand up for you.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Keep the pressure up, churches have zero right to diminishes the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. A Catholic priest in SC is telling his partitioners he will excommunicate them if they don't do penance for voting for Obama. I'm a Catholic, I'm trying to get this guy's e-mail so I can tell him to take a hike, he is an affront to the priesthood, I am ashamed for my church.

[CRA1]

I wonder if he did penance while all the children were being and are being molested?

[Crozier]

The Catholic League has an answer to the episcopal and priestly pedophile scandal.....it is the gays in their church and in their ministry. Scapegoat the gays while their scandals have destroyed their church and their treasure.

[janinei]

His boss is catholic-doc.orgic-doc.org

[janinei]

His boss is catholic-doc.orgic-doc.org

[MourningDood]

Citizens have every right to be heard. On both sides.

If you want to see hate first hand, look no further than what gays did to the man who worked in musical theater for 25 years, having worked his way up from a basic intern position to become artistic director of Califoria Musical Theater.

They attacked him and his place of business because he had the audacity to give $1,000 to the prop 8 movement. Nevermind that he has a lesbian sister. Nevermind that he offered to donate $1,000 to a gay rights organization. They wanted nothing less than his head on a platter, and they got it. He fell on his own sword and resigned.

Now I wonder if the entire industry will black-ball him. We all know how loving and kind that sort of thing is, from the gay community that professes such "tolerance".

[conservativesoncrack]

I am not crying for him at all. If a person thinks their religious views trump my rights they are wrong and if they inherit a certain amount of trouble for trying then that is their problem. Conversley, I would stand up to protect his rights if they did not interfere with the rights of others. Religon cannot be legislated.

[AngryCitizen]

Our actions have consequences. The man was a fool to do what he did when he worked in an environment that would not exist if it wasn't for gay people. Take away our rights? There is a backlash....

[luvobama]

That's it? One anecdote and you are after all gays? Man, I wonder how you feel about all the pedo philes in the Catholic church.

[liberaldemdave]

he is also gay. he was targeted not just for his donation but for his hypocrisy.

[cmfrey]

"They wanted nothing less than his head on a platter, and they got it." Hyperbole much?

He chose to support a cause that was affront to the very people that provide him with his livelihood. Being held responsible for your actions is not an attack.

[vincefango]

Land of the free? Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I'm starting to feel that these phrases only apply to the religious and companies getting bailout money. If I was still living in CA I'd have voted NO.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

You got that right. I'm sick of these hipocrites.