We’re as shocked as anyone that Southern California has become a hotbed of political activism, but nothing’s more surprising than Angelino Prop. 8 protesters’ willingness to walk long distances for many hours to make their point. This is a city where people drive to the corner market– maybe we were just saving it up for good use.
As inspiration/throw-down for tonight’s protest in New York City at 6:30 pm, by the Manhattan Mormon Temple (125 Columbus Ave at 65th Street), we’re including a map of Saturday’s Los Angeles protest route– and the equivalent distance overlaid on Manhattan. We sent you to Greenpoint, because we have a secret kielbasa agenda.
Actual Los Angeles Route:
Equivalent New York:
SHoskins
Wow, thats commitment! Way to go LA!
jeremito
I’m still confused about why we’re singling out the Mormon Church. What good is it going to do to protest the Mormon Church? They’re not going to change their steadfast, religious beliefs, no matter how much we protest. Also, doesn’t it undermine the cause to single out one religion as a scapegoat when MILLIONS of people from all walks of life — white, black & all religious denominations — decided to vote Yes on Prop 8?! I understand that the Mormon Church donated the majoritiy of the money to take our rights away, but wouldn’t it be more effective to protest at LA city hall or in Sacramento? That way you can voice your protest, but not seem like a shortsighted, equally bigoted scapegoater while doing it. I live in New York and I’m as queer as a 3 dollar bill, but I don’t think I’ll be going to the Mormon Church tonight….Interested in what my fellow NYers think of this…Do you see my point, or am I totally misguided?
BillyBob Thornton
re: jeremito
yes, it’s misguided. If you shine light upon those responsible, It will bring attention to their and OTHERS bigotry. No, you won’t sway commited mormons, nor change their dogma, but you will show the world that it’s not acceptable to force beliefs on others through legal discrimination.
jeremito
But if we’re “shining the light” why aren’t we protesting the houses or churches of others who gave money? It’s all a matter of public record….To me it seems like a knee-jerk reaction to single out the Mormons. Also, it seems like a diversion to focus so much attention on the Mormon church in California, when there were 2 other states (Arizona and Arkansas) that passed equally abhorant legislation. Why aren’t we calling on people to protest in Little Rock and Phoenix? I mean, I get it…but it just seems a little off to me…
faghag
This is so inspiring.
Good luck to everyone who’s taking part in this historical movement, I hope you get what you’re fighting for.
Now if anyone knows how we can help you from across the pond, it would be very helpful.
Peter
wait, last saturday or this upcoming saturday? i was at last saturday’s protest in silverlake, and we didn’t walk that far. the loop on the right is the basic route, and a group did go from there to hollywood and highland – but that’s only to the vertical shift in the middle of the map. did anyone actually march all the way to the mormon temple that night?
Japhy Grant
@Peter: Hey Peter-
The group that went to Hollywood & Highland actually grew in size (approx 4000) along the way and the police had them march down La Brea to Sunset and then along Sunset to San Vicente and then down to Santa Monica Blvd, which is where it ended and Drew Barrymore spoke.
seitan-on-a-stick
The Mormon Church raised $20 million for Prop 8. That’s 20 million reasons more than any voter. The Mormon Church is behind many conservative think tanks and measures in the US. Yes, Utah runs the American Theocracy which in turns gives orders to the Executive Branch, no matter who is in the White House. They are an exteme cult outside of the American mainstream of Judea-Christian identification. We just want to be able to marry one while their beliefs are polygamy, even under-aged children with their radical splinter groups. Mitt Romney had no chance at the Repub nomination in 2008 or 2012 for that matter becasue of their unAmerican agenda. The Mormon Church has placed Gay Families in the Cross-hairs with fundraising in the name of hate, breaking Tax laws and discrimination ordinances across the country. They don’t say “God Damn America” but “God Damn Gays!” There’s 20 million reasons to turn up Jeremito or do you prefer to stay at the back of the bus? Stay home and knit, if that’s your thang.
j
Yes, a lot of people actually marched the whole way.
jason
@jeremito:
my view on “why mormons?” is that if a church is going to force their members to donate upwards to $20 million to a campaign that was full of lies and deceit, i am not going to stand by quietly. i want them to know that we will not allow this to happen and we will continue to fight for our civil rights. if it had been revealed that a huge corporation had donated that amount of money, i have no doubt in my mind that we would have been outside their building, too. but considering this is a church that is trying to express their religious views and preferences on a civil rights matter makes people all the more angrier out here.
and there are other protests happening all over the country. there might not have been protests in the other states that just voted on bans, but that requires the citizens of those states to speak up and fight.
dizzyspins
Its worth singling out the Mormon Church, not because they will change their position, but because many Americans see them as a benign organization. The media attention our protests bring will reveal that they actually have a very hard-right agenda. Joe Six-Pack might not care about gay marriage, but he doesn’t want to live in a dry county.
Bruno
We may not change the Mormon church’s stance overnight, or at all, but we can certainly have an effect not only on how they’re viewed by others, but how they view themselves. It’s not at all a waste of time in my opinion.
jeremito
Ok, I understand the logic, but why then, aren’t we organizing protests of the Bronx (Democrat!) State legislator who is currently organizing a group in the State Senate to prevent same sex marriage in New York?! Why waste energy focusing on the negativity of the Mormon Church?! Why not get equally ENRAGED about the thousands of adopted children of LGBT parents in Arkansas who will be taken from their homes immediately and put into foster care? Why not organize a protest to pressure our OWN STATE SNATORS to LEGALIZE same sex marriage instead of focusing on the Mormons in California? What is the goal of the protest? To stop them from doing what exactly? Give up their tax exempt status? Doesn’t it make sense to focus our energies towards the future instead of dwelling on our losses? Just a thought….
Cornerframe
Saturday was an amazing night in Los Angeles. The media barely covered the 12,500est to protest and a short march down vacant closed off streets. We were met by horses and riot troopers when we tried to vere off the police route.
then, it happened. 2,000 protestors marched west down Hollywood blvd spontaneously. Another group of about 500 staged an impromptu sit in at the very popular and very busy Hollywood and Highland intersection. The marchers and the sitters met there at midnight for a huge rally.
the LAPD then escorted over a thousand marchers down Sunset blvd. On a Saturday night, from midnight-2am, dozens of police cars forcibly moved traffic from the insanely congested Sunset blvd to make way for Gay marchers to march back to West Hollywood.
The march came to an end at 2:05 as the marchers landed on Santa Monica Blvd, just as the bars/clubs closed. Huge party, This is where Drew Barrymore made her speech.
And, NONE of it was covered by ANY news organization
Guan Yin
It’s also a clear sign to gay people trapped in Mormonism that there is a real life outside.
Gianpiero
This is a cool map. Thanks for doing it.
Turtle
Great map, thanks for that! The Sunset Junction march started off on the wrong foot with an hour of speechifying with a sound system of 20 feet. Then the organizers, bless, sent us down dark streets with no traffic and closed businesses. I imagine that’s why the protest got rowdy and eventually splintered off, ending up at Hollywood & Highland again (which is where I peeled off) and going on to WeHo.
As to the question of why — sometimes you have to fucking SCREAM. That’s what we’re doing. For perhaps the first time in a long time, the gay community is getting rude.
And make no mistake: As a kid with a bullhorn said on Saturday night, this is a youth movement.
Phoenix (Who Is Not Giving Money To Bigots)
@ JERMITO,
The reason you don’t understand why GLBT are singling out the Mor(m)ons is because you are a troll. 99.99% likely a Mormon troll. If you actually don’t get it, (I don’t know maybe you’ve been living in a cave for the past few months or something) go HERE.
seitan-on-a-stick
The New York Protest march unfurled a hand-sewn banner by organizer Gilbert Baker while 1000s carried signs which read “Separation of Church and State” and “Tax the Mormon Church” and chants like “Straight. Gay. Black. White. Gay Marriage is a Civil Right.” The protest started at the Mormon Church (of Latter Day Saints) at 125 Columbus Ave and with the aid of Norman Siegel; civil rights lawyer, we were able to march down Broadway to Columbus Circle.
It seems that with the growing media interest that this is snowballing into ‘Stonewall on Steroids’ with the inevitable March on Washington to Come perhaps in the Spring and predicted to bring out easily more than a million especially since the “Non-protester” types see the time to protect and fight for our Equal Rights and the same civil rights as others who can marry. Many gays believe that an Obama administration may be Hope for Change on Gay Legal Marriage and protecting Gay families.
The November 15th National Protest on Saturday is listed at http://www.jointheprotest.com as every city in the US mobilizes for the right to Gay Marraige and opposition to Proposition 8 which passed in California, as well as anti-Gay Marriage wins in Arizona and Florida.
Brian Miller
I’m glad folks are taking on the Mormon Church. It’s funny to watch them whine about being singled out unfairly as an insular minority to receive unequal treatment… because that’s exactly what they teamed up with other groups to do to gay people.
Perhaps if they have four or five years of the sort of pure hell they helped create for others, they’ll learn not to create it for others in the future.
ILOVEZ
If I was there, I would do it too! AMAZING!
Sparky
Isn’t the reason to protest against the LDS’s actions, other than the bigotry, is that it’s illegal? As a tax-exempt organization they are barred from active political participation. If the church as a corporate entity wants to influence elections by donating money they should lose their tax-exempt status.
A real Mormon, not a troll
For anyone who wants the facts instead of the hysterical rhetoric about the Mormon church’s stance on Prop 8, read here:http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-responds-to-same-sex-marriage-votes
The church supports civil unions for gays, but it reserves the right, as you all do, to speak out on what it believes marriage should be.
No-one was ‘forced’ to give money in support of Prop 8 campaigns, as a matter of fact, many church members voted AGAINST the proposition, myself included. Very rarely will the church get involved in political issuse, but even when it does, church members are asked to respect those on ALL sides who exercise their democratic rights to vote according to their own consciences.
I’m reading a lot here about bigotry and hatred that has supposedly been aimed at gays by Mormons. Yet the tactics used by those who picketed outside of a sacred place of worship for thousands, rivalled those of Fred Phelps. The grounds were vandalized, the signs read “morons”, “liars”, “bigots”, “go back to Utah”, and there was catcalling, pushing and shoving. Church members who tried to take signs off the temple fence were harassed and intimidated. So let’s talk again about that bigotry and hatred stuff – this was no peaceful gathering of poor, disenfranchised victims, it was a mob gathering who used hate speech and the general dislike of Mormons in mainstream society to back them up.
Some here have asked “why not picket legislature or other churches or organizations involved in the ‘yes to 8’ movement. I’ll tell you why – because the Mormon church is an easy, convenient target. If the protestors behaved like this outside of Jewish synagogue or black church, there would be cries of “hate speech!” and gays against prop-8 would look like jerks. Why didn’t the protestors picket a large Muslim mosque, since the Muslims have no qualms at all about saying that gays are depraved and sinful and should have no rights at ALL. Like I said, the protestors picked the easiest target where they’d get the least backlash – plain and simple.
As it is you have the support of mainstream American society to use bigoted and hate-filled language against Mormons…that same element of society that voted against your rights, that same conservative element who actually DOES hate you.
I know that my church does not hate gays and while mistakes have been made (and acknowledged) in the past, it does not condone bigotry and hatred for any group of people. It does however believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and has the right, as you do, to have its own beliefs.
Go for my jugular all you want – but I couldn’t read the commments here without telling those of you who supported the hatred and bigotry against Mormons that you are holding yourself to a mighty double standard.
Brian Miller
Take your propaganda elsewhere.
Your church actively funded the targeted revocation of the equal protection rights of every gay Californian.
Your church organization, its leaders, and every one of its members who voted for this hate amendment are bigots.
You can deny it, you can complain that your chickens coming home to roost are like Fred Phelps, you can whine about “oppression,” you can hide behind the LDS Church’s fig-leaf in favor of “civil union” segregation, and it all doesn’t matter.
One group’s rights were revoked through law — gays.
The LDS Church funded that hateful crusade, and now must reap the outraged consequences of that hateful crusade. Gay people have been awakened to the hatred and bigotry out there, and we’re going to confront you on the steps of your own churches until you apologize and accept accountability for your bigotry.
A real Mormon, not a troll
Wake up and smell the reality. Mormons were not the majority who voted against Proposition 8 in California – I repeat, why are gays not picketing, harassing and villifying Blacks, Hispanics, Catholics, Baptists, Muslims – who WERE in the majority of ‘yes t 8’ voters? Speaking of chickens…
The Mormon church is an easy, convenient target, plain and simple. Mainstream society hates Mormons, and so gays have a group they can attack without being villified for it. Conservative America and the mainstream religious right is letting gays do their dirty work for them, gays are attacking the Mormon church in ways that the anti-Mormons out there have only ever dreamed of – but don’t for one minute think they’ll be supporting you when it comes down to rights to marriage.
How ironic that so many gays now condone the same methods of intimidation that have been used against gays. Hatred, violence, bigotry, intimidation and harassment, boycotting of businesses, publishing people’s names and addresses on the internet, vandalizing their churches, cars, homes and businesses, picketing places of worship that are sacred to thousands of people, signs calling us “scum” and so on are all being used to silence those who have opposing views on marriage to what the ‘no to 8’ voters do.
If gays want change – then mobilize your your 2% of the population, come up with your own proposition in support of gay marriage, get it funded, advertised and supported, and see what happens when it goes to a vote.
The violence of one disenfranchised group (gays) towards another (Mormons) is ironic to say the least. Gays are venting their anger at ALL segments of American society who have denied them rights, by attacking another minority – the Mormons.
If it wasn’t all so tragic and ironic, it’d be funny.
J Rose
@jeremito: I didn’t have any Catholics or Evangelicals knocking on my NEVADA door to support CALIFORNIA’S Prop 8. I sure had a few Mormons (and every single one of them had white skin). Separation of church and state. That is what Mormons are being targeted for. One issue, and one issue alone.