RAIN OR SHINE

Protestors At GOP Convention Include The Gay, The Bad… And The Vulva

The threat of a hurricane—or at least some God-awful weather—hasn’t stopped hundreds of protestors from gathering in Tampa to demonstrate at the Republican Convention.

Though it was less than the expected 5,000, some 500 protestors gathered for a mile-long March on the RNC  to the Tampa Convention Center on Monday. They represented a coalition of causes, from ending U.S. involvement in Afghanistan to endorsing DREAM act, with the LGBT community represented by groups like GetEQUAL.

“We are a family, but this week the Republicans will try to add language to their platform to continue to discriminate against families like mine,” said GetEQUAL’s Jarrod Scarbrough (above), who attended the White House Easter Egg Roll earlier this year with his partner and children. “They also want to give an unborn fetus full rights, yet if that fetus grows up to be LGBTQ, 88 percent of those rights will be ripped away. That’s right, as a gay man, I have 12% of the rights as heterosexuals. This is wrong, especially when the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution affirms that all men are created equal.”

For the most part, the anti-GOP demonstrations have been peaceful. On Tuesday, though, things got ugly as police in riot gear broke up a to-do at the convention center between anti-GOP protesters and members of the Westboro Baptist Church. It’s not clear what prompted the fight but authorities separated the two groups for security reasons.

Later, a man was arrested at the makeshift “Romneyville” protest campsite for breaking the jaw of another demonstrator.

Meanwhile, a group of ladies (and at least one gentleman) from Code Pink donned life-size vagina costumes to greet delegates on Sunday and protest the GOP’s war on women. You tell ’em, sisters!

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