After a weekend in which Prop. 8 supporters moved to invalidate the more than 18,000 gay marriages in California, and Pastor Rick Warren told everyone how much he loves the gays so long as they know their place, we’re very conflicted about this weekend’s “Light Up the Night” vigil for equality. As we mentioned previously, making an impact seems especially difficult when organizers tell you not to stand silently, but also not to hold signs or chant slogans. The video above of the San Francisco event is a case in point: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is brilliantly sung and all those people out there holding candles look great, but if I were just passing by, I’d assume it was a Christmas concert.
The event was designed partly to show the “nice side” of Prop. 8 protesters, but I think it misses the point. We’re not trying to be liked, we’re trying to win our rights.
Assuming that Ma or Pa Hetero did find out that the nice people holding candles were doing it to support marriage equality, it seems unlikely that it’s going to do much to change their mind. I don’t want to belittle the well-meaning efforts of those who came out– and certainly, any visibility is better than no visibility, but nobody’s awarding points for politeness. As San Diego’s Rex Wockner put it:
As this was a “silent vigil,” there was no chanting — and participants were told not to bring protest signs. That’s all good and well as long as passersby have some inkling what you’re silently doing. Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case here. People kept asking. The pretend nuns in face paint likely added to the confusion.
Fortunately, not everyone was so inclined to make it a silent night. In New York, the scene looked more like this:
And in San Jose, Californa, it looked like this:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Perhaps what’s so troubling about the Light Up the Night event is that it seems like a tacit admission that the criticisms made by Prop 8 supporters about the louder, abrasive protests in November were somehow justified. Frankly, if I were a Prop. 8 supporter, I would rather have the gays stand quietly than shouting and marching about how Prop. 8 is bigoted and wrong. I’m not sure we should be doing the homophobes any favors, or, at the very least, allow ourselves to literally become less vocal about our rights.
Take for example, Paula Tupper’s account of what happened at the San Diego vigil:
“Approximately 35 people, carrying electric candles, wearing signs that read “I am a 1st Class Citizen with 2nd Class Rights.” They were aged from teenagers to very senior citizens. They were men and women, gay and straight. At least two of the women were over seventy, one looking closer to 80. Two persons were physically frail. They were all dressed neatly, and no one wore anything outrageous. And, as advertised, they remained quiet, and nonconfrontational.
First, a woman approached, and said “I know you can’t talk back, so I am going to talk to you! You are abominations. You are sinners and must stop polluting yourselves and others. Hell awaits you. You lost this ballot, and you should not fight us any longer. Give up and recognize that you are not wanted here. You do not deserve the right to speak. Go home and give up your filthy practices. You offend god.”
The end of the mall where we stood silently was also where the Santa pictures were set up. We were told by our organizers that Santa would not be open until seven o’clock, and that we would leave that area before that time because we did not want to affect the pleasure the children would have visiting Santa. As that time approached, we were trying to collect ourselves to make a single file walk through the rest of the mall (remembering the aged and handicapped with us). “Santa” came up and ordered us to move. When told we would be gone in a few minutes, he angrily said “NOW!” Again told we would be gone in a few moments, he angrily shouted “NOW! Or I will call security!” (We had already cleared our vigil beforehand with the mall. Remember, this was a nonconfrontational vigil.) He was told to do what he thought he had to do. “Santa” then proceeded to make an obscene hand gesture to several of the teenaged females. His vulgar behavior in front of peaceful elder ladies and young girls was ignored, and the vigil continued on its walk.A young man in his early twenties came up to the marchers and began to do what could only be described as a macho strut. He loudly barked “Know what I think of liberals? This is what I think of you!” and turned to reveal the back of his tee-shirt, which showed Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes expressing a stream of urine on the word “liberals.”
Didn’t the gay community used to say that “silence equals death”?
JJJJ
Sadly, Towleroad now reports that a lesbian was gangraped just outside san Francisco…just for being a lesbian.
Wolf
Japhy I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU!
The “nice side” is not going to work and has never worked throughout history so why should it now? Where I appreciate JoinTheImpacts efforts in there Mission Statement it reads:
“We stand for reaching out across all communities. We do not stand for bigotry, for scapegoating, or using anger as our driving force. Our mission is to encourage our community to engage our opposition in a conversation about full equality and to do this with respect, dignity, and an attitude of outreach and education.” (And they are also hooked up with National Gay and Lesbian Task Force which is alsom more “TALK and SHARE”)
I am finding in mond blowing that no less than a few weeks after Prop 8 the anger has subsided and everyone wants to go back to a losing stratagy. You cannot fight peacefully and quietly when your enemy (Yes and they are THE ENEMY) does NOT. We will never win our rights through “nice”. It just does not work that way and one would think that after the past 20 years of working that way they would learn that lesson.
Another thing that has been irking me is the Gay Media response to this. Columnist such as Camilla LaPaglia and Hillary Rosen have taken and encouraged “the nice route” for FEAR of backlash? Backlash like what? We still do not have EQUAL RIGHTS. The RIGHTS we fight for and win are constantly attacked and taken away, and VIOLENCE against us has been on the rise for the past few years. Then you have idiots like Steve Friess from “The Advocate” who write articles like “Why This Isn’t Stonewall 2.0” who attacks members of his own community, some of our vocal supporters of the straight community and new activist who want change in a recent article
“That brings us to the other major problem with calling this Stonewall 2.0: It raises expectations of a newly energized political force of young gays and allies. And young people are notoriously antsy, anxious, and impatient. They’re the most egotistical of all activists, people who believe that history occurs at their pace.”
{Like the old pace is so much better?)
Friss also goes onto say that any reference to Stonewall is
“We can do better than to rip off our past and, in the process, disrespect our history.”
Thats where he is wrong. “The Stonewall Movement” NEVER ENDED. Here we are 40 years later. 40 FREAKIN YEARS still trying to get our Civil and Human Rights. They either don’t understand, are apathetic or are afraid of what they’ll lose if they stand up and urge others to do what they cam. OUT, LOUD, and VOCALLY.
BrianPrince
This is not the late 50’s and 60’s Dr. King’s tactic of peaceful, silent sit-ins at the restaurants will not suffice. We are not noticeably different from our counterparts — if we remain silent, we have to be visibly different… paint a rainbow across your face… something.
I’m gay… and I’m vehemently opposed to the huge gay-pride marches, because they don’t portray us as equals… naked men and women do not further our cause — but neither does silence.
We need to be somewhere in between… normal… with one hell of a set of lungs. For some reason, the breeders still think it’s about sex — that disgusts me.
Hey Santa, come to my neck of the woods, and I’ll show you who’s been a “naughty” boy.
hardmannyc
I don’t think anyone in cold cities turned out for this. I never heard anything about it.
Tom
You didn’t hear anything about it because it was stupid.
The Gay Recluse
I totally agree with you. It seems like there’s a lot of confusion about exactly what and where and how to protest these days, which I attribute to the “growing pains” of a new generation of activists. (That said, I have no idea how to address this, or if it’s even a long-term problem!)
rickroberts
We’re not trying to “win our rights.†We’re trying to have our right recognized. There is a difference. Certain rights are inherent, inalienable.
Wolf
Yeah well I am sort of disgusted at all this
http://www.back2stonewall.com/?p=64
Wolf
Rick they might be herent and inalienable. But they are still be denyed and ingored.
Chris
Japhy — That’s true in some cities, but I did the media for the LA protests and we got the 4 – 5 very good messaging minutes on multiple news broadcasts on CBS, NBC, KLTA, and ABC, not to mention newspapers and radio. about 1.6 million impressions overall. That is worth a lot — especially in California where we need to convert people to No on 8 in future — or whatever the next battle is to get marriage rights back.
Wayne
HEY! Lol, I took the photo from NYC that’s posted above. What no photo credit? It comes from my WOW Report post about Light Up The Night.
http://www.worldofwonder.net/2008/12/21/Light_Up_The_Night/index.php
More of my photos from the NYC event were posted on Towleroad:
http://www.towleroad.com/2008/12/vigils-for-marr.html
Mark In Indiana
Wolf, I agreed with the back to stonewall link so much, thanks for that…
As I was reading this call to respectful quiet carol singing activism, I kept thinking of how much I admired ACT UP in the 80’s–and I still admire them.
The point can’t be made enough: the religious right only wants to hear from us that we’re converting to heterosexuality and that we recognize our previous sinfulness–call to dialogue with ideologues–it didn’t work in Munich 1939, won’t work now. We live in a loud world, full of distraction, overrun by consumer culture, people have dulled senses, no reaction time, miniscule attention spans–you’ll never sway anyone with Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.
We here, we’re queer, get used to it.
AJD
I’ve been complaining about this type of shit for years, and everyone I’ve ever tried to complain to has just acted like I’m crazy.
When the Indiana General Assembly managed to pass an anti-gay-marriage measure, and the best the gay people gathered outside could manage was to chant “Shame! Shame!” and then stand outside holding up cardboard coffins. Prior to the vote, Indiana Equality sent out emails urging people to flood their senators’ and representatives’ boxes with mass-produces messages saying that “discrimination is wrong!” Then we have bullshit like the “Day of Silence,” as if that makes some kind of difference.
All in all, gay activism in the last several years has degenerated into nothing more than performance art. Being nice and polite hasn’t worked in the last several years, and it’s not going to work today.
We need to get out there and be loud, obnoxious and nasty because that’s what our enemies are doing, and they’re winning. We have to stop being afraid of confrontation. To hell with those cowards who keep saying they don’t want to spark a backlash; we’ve been living through a backlash since 1969, if not since the beginning of the Christian era.
These people aren’t going to leave us alone until they know they have something to lose by messing with us. THAT is what Martin Luther King, Jr. did in the Civil Rights movement.
You should never use violence, but you need to be willing to fight. What we’ve been doing for the last several years isn’t fighting, but sitting in a corner with our hands over our faces and whimpering, “Don’t! Go away, you bully!”
Leland Frances
“1.6 impressions,” Chris?
Here’s one more: YOU’RE A FUCKING CHILD!
The “message” that gays want to be treated as first class citizens IS ALREADY OUT THERE. Find me just 10 people over the age of 21 in the US who hasn’t “heard” that. I DARE YOU!
Ya think if you keep repeating it over and over in ever more pitiful displays that a society inculcated with homohatred since the day they were born will suddenly snap out of it. What’s next? Crawling on your bellies in circles? But, hey, if you’re on TV that means something’s changed. right? WRONG!
The only message y’all were sending Saturday night is that you don’t have ANY BALLS! That no one need to take you seriously. You’re simply political panhandlers. “Spare rights? Could you spare some rights and a cup of coffee?”
I’m still waiting for the answer to my question: WHAT do Impacted Amy and y’all expect these pussy PSEUDO protests to accomplish when shit like this has ALL been done before, again and again and again and again, FOR DECADES and DECADES and we STILL do not have federal job protection, marriage equality, federally protected adoption rights, the right to serve openly in the military.
And we still keep getting beaten up or killed outright. And Mr. Best Friend the Gays Ever Had just dry fucked us for the SECOND time by inviting a preacher of homohate to publicly pray with him in front of billions of people who will be watching around the world. Those cross-the-country demos on November 15th REALLY put the fear of fags in Obama didn’t they? He be scared now.
The Year of “Milk,” the Year of H8TE is fast coming to a close and you’ve learned NOTHING! Not from Harvey Milk [do ANY of you seriously THINK that he would have responded to H8TE with CANDLES and SILENCE???], not from the black civil rights movement [Montgomery bus boycott that SHUT DOWN A CITY, and that, along with lunch counter sit ins and the like that BROKE segregation to pieces], and not from ACT UP which REVOLUTIONIZED the way the government, hospitals, doctors, the drug companies treat people with AIDS.
REAL social CHANGE, actually DEFEATING entrenched, legally sanctioned bigotry requires DISRUPTING business as usual in society’s lives. NOT fucking milling around with a bunch of candles a wishin’ and a hopin’ that Massa will take pity on all we poor little pansies.
I’ve begun to think that Amy Impact isn’t really a lesbian at all but a Right Wing mole planted in the gay movement just as it SEEMED to be coming out of its willful slumber. She’s succeeded in turned “No More Mr. Nice Gay” back into a passive little lamb. Baaaaa. Baaaaaaaa. Baaaaaaaaaaa.
So, tell me, Amy Honey Sweetie Baby: why aren’t you organizing demonstrations in DC and across the country on January 20th to protest Obama turning millions of LGBTs into mere “issues about which people can disagree”?
You’re NOT “Stonewall 2.0″—your fucking PRE Stonewall!
Stonewall, mes enfants, was a RIOT that went on for three nights not a fucking parade of braindead pansyasses! There was no, “Oh, please Mr. Policeman. Can’t you just see what nice, harmless little boys and girls we are and stop raiding the few placs we have to meet, stop putting us in jail, stop clubbing us with your nightsticks just because you can? We just want to reach out to you in love.” The only singing was done to mock the police, not fucking Xmas carols. The glow in the Village that week wasn’t from candles but from trashbins set on fire. And the first night someone tried to set the Stonewall Bar ITSELF ON FIRE after the cops locked themselves inside IN FEAR of the gays who HAD FOUGHT BACK!!!
I’m not suggesting we set fire to anything EXCEPT OURSELVES in terms of extinguishing our passivity.
Ya wanna see candlelight marches? Look up the pictures of the demonstrations AROUND THE WORLD afer Matthew Shepard was slaughtered. EVERYONE this side of Prick Cheney was saying, “It must STOP. No more gay murders.” That was TEN YEARS ago and I’ve lost count of the number of LGBTs who’ve been killed since then.
DENOUNCE those who hate us! DISRUPT their lives! DEMAND real change. DEMONSTRATE against those who tolerate intolerance at the inauguration of Barack I Played Your Asses Like A Harp Obama.
Wolf
So you angry ones like me. I can use help at back2stonewall.com
Email me at [email protected]
Chris
Leland — All I see you doing is jerking off on this site — what are you doing to make change exactly? You always spout off and never say what you are going to actually do.
If you are not on television in this country you do not exist with the people we need to reach and we need to reach them over and over and over till we change their minds.
Leland Frances
Chris, Chris, stop! You’re breaking my heart!
One thing I’ve done, out of many you’ll never know about, is come here and speak Truth to Self-Delusion and PowerLESSness.
“we need to reach them over and over and over till we change their minds”???
Bitch, how old exactly are you? Mentally I mean. Society ain’t your Mama that if you keep pulling on its skirt over and over and over and over, whining, “Me want candy! Me want candy! Me want candy!” is going to give it to you. You’re not promoting change messaging, you’re simply guilty of echolalia.
We “asked” California voters, nicely even, on November 4th not to take away our Constitutional equality and MILLIONS said FUCK YOU! And, now, they’re trying to eraase ex post facto the 18,000+ marriages that happened before Nov. 4.
Let go of Mommy’s skirt, Chris, and kick over her kitchen table of business…and bigotry…as usual. You’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem: perpetuating the idea that we are harmless mice.
Chris
Did you see MILK Leland? He worked in several different ways, in and out of the system………which what we need to do and are doing. This was only one of them…..what did you do this weekend?
We’re not harmless mice — we’re “your neighbors”, “just like you” — a message we need to get across more — look at votes on marriage in this state: 2000 62/38 2008 52/48 — we are making headway, a lot faster than other minority groups have.
I’m not saying don’t be loud — I’m saying there are different ways to work it — and disparaging a little quiet when it keeps our issues top-of-mind for these people is a little deaf.
Denton Ellis
Because the gay community’s demands where voted down they now choose to resort to militancy and violence.More negative publicity because now the world knows what type of people they are.
Michael
@Denton Ellis: What violence?
The only actual harm to people being done is not by our folks, but by people shooting our brothers in the head and gangraping our sisters in the street. You heard about somebody breaking a cross on TV and think violence, but I doubt you heard about Durval in D.C. or the lesbian woman in Richmond Mr. Ellis. That is true violence and that is our present.
Wolf
@Chris:
62/38 2008 52/48
We are making progress? On marriage. So in a few years this way all non confrontaional and safe and warm IT might pass. Then behind it we have a many other Rights and Civil Liberties to work on. So we should have full equality by 2050. Hope you are young enough to see it.
You all need to learn ITS NOT ONLY ABOUT MARRAIGE.
Rob
The protests were not held just for pedestrians. How many pedestrians can you reach in 90 minutes? No, they were media events, and in Los Angeles we didn’t just get great, supportive coverage on CBS, ABC, KTLA, and FOX(!) — we were also on their newscasts multiple times in the same day.
Milk said if they know us, they’ll vote for us.
If they know us, they’ll vote for us.
If they know us, they’ll vote for us.
But they have to know us. In person and through the media, day in and day out. We have to give the media new stories and new angles to get new coverage. And we have to show the rest of America that we are angry but not JUST angry, that we are full human beings, that we are part of society.
If they know us, they’ll vote for us.
Rob
And Chris, don’t bother with Leland. Just google “lelandfrances” and you’ll see he lives to tear others down without ever contributing anything useful. Arguing with him only feeds his hunger for bitterness and recrimination.
Chris
Wolf — I’m old enough to know that when i was at Rutgers in 1984 fighting for a employment nti-discrimination bill in NJ that seemed like a long range thing and a big deal — we did it over time, by speaking both loudly and softly, that’s my point. Now the debate has moved far beyond that. Anger works but not without politicing — again check MILK.
Leland Frances
NOW, I get it. You interpret history from fictionalized movies, Chris and Rob.
Sorry, but I’m one of those who was an ADULT when he was still alive; who was active in the movement myself then so I know what was fiction and what was fact about the movie, and a LOT of it was fiction.
But you’re problem is less that, it appears, than your selective perception of where his POWER came from. It was only in PART from people getting to know him.
The signature example in the fictionalized film and the Oscar-winning documentary was the straight union leader. YES, the guy came to like Harvey, but FIRST they formed a COALITION of mutual interest to boycott Coors. Harvey delivered the gays, the union guy delivered some jobs. His coming to like Harvey in the process was simply a bonus. Harvey wouldn’t have cared [as NO SERIOUS activist does] whether the guy went away liking him or not. It was the greater POWER they created together.
Further, what most people tune out on in the film is that Harvey’s eventual election as SF supervisor was the direct result of a return to “district elections,” meaning that he no longer had to get the votes of a broad section of people from ALL of San Francisco [which resulted in him losing repeatedly], but just from the district which was made up predominately of GAY voters. And even THEY didn’t all like him, but enough did.
And from the POWER that gave him as the “biggest queen in town,” through his board vote NOT from hugs and singing Kumbaya and candles, he was THEN in a position to influence the majority of other board members to support, e.g., the gay jobs bill. Remember the scene where he tells the mayor that if he wants the continued support of the gay community he must not allow Dan White back on the board. Apparently you don’t because you expect hugs to work FIRST and totally missed the evolution of Harvey’s power. It was creating NOT love in the other side but FEAR!
Now before you fire back with your water pistol about how HE defeated Prop 6 by getting people to like gays, by showing them the face of gays blah blah blah, THAT is the biggest distortion in the film [whereas that he was the first out gay elected to major office is an outright lie].
Polls at the beginning of September 1978 showed that Prop 6 would pass by some 20 points. The middle of September, two gays, David Mixner and Peter Scott [from LOS ANGELES] convinced former CA governor Ronald Reagan to publicly come out against 6. Two weeks later the poll showed the Yes and No votes neck and neck. Others convinced Democratic then governor Jerry Brown, and others, incredibly the SF Catholic Archbishop, and a few days before the election, Pres. Carter. None of it was Harvey’s doing.
Even fewer paid attention to the fact that Harvey says in the film that he half wishes 6 would WIN so that, as it were, pansies like you would get off your dainty, delusional perches and FIGHT harder for full equality.
Harvey’s main message was NOT try to smile fuck your way to equality, but COME OUT and STAND UP AND FIGHT!
Rob
I’ll just point out how Leland deliberately misinterprets what people say to keep his invective going. I said, “If they know us, they’ll vote for us,” which Leland twisted into, “People voted for Harvey because they knew Harvey,” which isn’t what I (or Harvey) was saying at all.
We’re going to win this battle because it’s hard for people to demonize or vote against lesbians and gay if they know lesbians and gays, if they’re friends with us, if they work with us, if they relate to us on a daily basis.
Wolf
@Chris:
40 years man. How much time do we have?
Chris
As much time as it takes Wolf. It’s happening every day in all kinds of ways.
Wolf
@Chris:
Its not going to happen that way. You can’t change the BIGOTED RELIGIOUS outlook. We need to stand and change this on a Govermental level. And now with this incoming adminstration is our best chance. We may not get it again after 4 years from now. We need to stand up, fight for and demand our rights. We aren’t going to get them by singing “Have Yourself a Merry freakin Christmas, Food drives and raching out to bigots who would rather we not exist at all.
Thats just my opinion. And beleive me when I say that you are entitled to yours and if you want to work for our Equality the way you want to thats fine with me. I think it won’t work but its fine. I’ll just follow my course.
Tom
I’m just chiming in to say I’m annoyed by the ignorance of this article. If you had been Ma and Pa wandering by, you would have seen a 14 foot banner center stage stating “Repeal Prop 8. Marriage is a Civil Right”. I thinkk the message was pretty clear.
You may also have been attracted by the beautiful singing and paused to listen to a message delivered in a manner that didn’t intimidate you.
There are lots of ways to get a message out. I’m pretty sure people are aware that we’re mad by now, but many of them won’t be swayed unless we access their hearts. Many of them won’t be swayed anyway.
And even if we reached no one, which is unlikely, the people that left that vigil left with a message of hope, and as Harvey Milk said “You gotta give ’em hope”.
So I don’t think there’s any doubt we’ll be screaming and marching again in the new year, but chill the **** out for a minute and see if you can hold a decent conversation with a stranger – and maybe investigate a little more before you judge.
Raphael
Um, I don’t think the “nice” side and “angry” side are mutually exclusive, or counter-productive.
As long as we keep this in the papers, it’s a good thing.
Tom
Thank you, Raphael. I think you hit it on the money.
Wolf
@Tom:
We have been having conversations and it hasn;lt worked. WHY in the world would it work now?
Its becoming clearer and clearer that the division between us will be the cause of our downfall.
You may not agree with protests and boycotts and I may not agree with coversations and food drives BUT we should not attack EACH OTHER. That much is clear.
Chris
Wolf — Keep doing what you do. It’s good. But the calm message works too, because not everyone who voted yes on 8 is a raving biggot — many are, but many are not — they just don’t fully understand yet — it’s a process. If they know us, they’ll be more comfortable with us.
If for instance, the Prop 8 vote had happened after a couple of years of marriages happening in CA, and the sky not falling, the vote would have gone the other way.
Charles J. Mueller
@Chris:
From the musical: CINDERELLA
Cinderella: : I will remember. Oh fairy godmother how wonderful it all is!!
(sung)
Cinderella: It’s possible for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. It’s possible for a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage.
Fairy Godmother: And four white mice are easily turned to horses Such fal de rah and fiddle dee dee of courses Quite possible!
Both: It’s possible!
Cinderella: For the world is full of zanies and fools who don’t believe in sensible rules and won’t believe what sensible people say
Both: And because these daft and dewey eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes Impossible things are happening every day.
Cinderella: It’s possible
Fairy Godmother: It’s possible
Cinderella: It’s possible
Fairy Godmother:It’s possible
Cinderella: It’s possible
Fairy Godmother:It’s possible
Both: It’s possible!!
Charles J. Mueller
@Chris:
— they just don’t fully understand yet —
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it. – WC Fields
Denton Ellis
The atrocious barbarity that was perpetrated on this most undeserving woman was not the work of white middle or upper class white conservatives.This was the work of minorities.So much for cultural diversity and aligning ourselves with the oppressed and under-privileged.When the Islamics and the Latinos become the predominant population of this country you will see much more of this horror.We must identify our enemies and not candy coat it with idealism.We need to develop a much more realistic approach and a working strategy to promote our cause.
Charles J. Mueller
@Chris:
“As much time as it takes Wolf.”
Jesus Fucking H. Crist. People like you just piss me off no end. I am sitting here, shaking like a leaf with anger over that blasé statement.
Do you know who the fuck you sound like? You sound just like dumb fuck, McCain.
100 Years In Iraq ‘Would Be Fine With Me,’ Even ‘A Million Years’»
I’m 72 years old, God Damn it. Just when do YOU think would be a good time for my Filipino partner of six years to come to America to be by my side?
When I’m 172 years old?
Sapphocrat
@Michael: You know perfectly what “violence” Denton is referring to — all those Mormon temples burned down, and Christian street preachers beaten to within an inch of their lives, and that insane radical homo who drove his car straight into a crowd of peaceful, silent Yes On 8 demonstrators, and–
Oh, wait, that didn’t happen. Never mind.
Nikki
Wow…one of my photos made the Queerty blog! Cool. As Japhy says, our San Jose vigil was anything but silent. Tho the JTI organizers said not to bring signs or chant, we opted instead to bring 10 or 12 LARGE banners (seen behind Patrick, the dude with the bullhorn), all which made our purpose and message very clear. We were also told not to chant and we didn’t, but we did have a bullhorn which we used for an “open mic” session wherein anyone amongst our vigil attendees were free to step into the limelight and express their thoughts about prop 8 and glbtqi equality. What is even more interesting was the severe criticism we received from the “established” glbtqi leaders of our local community for choosing to hold our vigil at San Jose’s immensely popular “Christmas in the Park,” an annual holiday event held in downtown San Jose which draws thousands to the attraction. We were told it would alienate people as we would be seen as unwelcome interlopers who were out to ruin families’ special night out with the kids. We were also told the San Jose PD took this event very seriously and would likely harass us or run us out altogether. I am so glad we ignored the paranoia and overly cautious among our community’s “leaders” — the event was hugely successful. We were boldly visible with the brightly colored banners and with our bullhorn. There was no police presence, no harassment whatsoever. The reception we received from the crowd and motorists was overwhelmingly positive and supportive, with the exception of one or two curmudgeons who grumbled a requisite but nearly inaudible “Yes on 8!” as they sheepishly strode by, refusing to make eye contact. We claimed our right to be there amongst the revelers and set ourselves up on center stage — we were impossible to miss. We achieved everything we set out to do, i.e., to be highly visible and make our message clear and unapologetic. At one point, a rickshaw delivered “Santa” to the theme park — dropped him off right in the middle of our group. Santa just smiled and proceeded to his decorated throne to begin taking gift orders from the kids. The rickshaw driver pumped his fist at us and yelled, “You guys rock!” So much for all the warnings and criticisms of those who scolded us on how such a venue(i.e., a *family* venue) was a “terrible idea!”
Thanks for posting one of my photos — the rest can be seen through links on our local JTI blogsite: http://www.jointheimpactsanjose.info
Can’t wait ’til January 10th!!!!
JJJJ
Will anyone be protesting the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on the day before the Inauguration? They’ve hired Rick Warren to be keynote speaker at their MLK celebration .
Gwen
I was at the SF vigil and I found it to be a bit too mournful. And, damn after the mormons and Warren I’m just not in the mood to hear any songs about the baby jesus. However, after the vigil there was a spirited march around Union Square with signs and continuous shout outs for Equal Rights Now! This was totally a grass roots effort with awesome people. But the most important point I want to make is the peaceful vigil ended up being a VERY GOOD THING as there was a extremely violent demonstration a couple blocks away by self described Anarchists protesting whats going on in Greece by taking down a crowded shopping center.
Chris
@Charles J. Mueller:
I’m far from blase Charles. I mean we’ll keep doing it till we get it done and of course it never really gets done — look at the black community 143 years after the civil war.
Btw, my partner is Mexican.