we get further into the budget mess, we hear a lot about it in what is left of the Sacramento media. We hear a lot about it in traditional activist circles.  But the message has only peripherally escaped beyond that.  Getting people to understand has to come through a full court press from all interested parties.  That means mainstream media, blogs, emails, letters to the editor, and person to person communication.

But all that work cannot exempt any of us from doing the good ol’ fashioned protest.  In San Francisco and Sacramento today, activists will protest the cuts to HIV/AIDS services and education.  At 10 AM, a broad coalition will join together at SF City Hall to make it clear that these drastic cuts in HIV education are simply not acceptable.  A bunch of people will then hop on a bus on their way to Sacramento for a protest at the State Capitol at 1:30 PM.  I’ll post some pictures from the festivities later this morning.

But it simply must go beyond single silo-based activist protests. We can get tens of thousands of people to show up to protest Prop 8, yet HIV funding cuts aren’t nearly as good of a draw.  Look, both issues should matter to the LGBT community, and frankly, to progressives generally. Further, we need to protest the budget cuts in general.  Education funding cuts affect a profound array of issues, as do health and services cuts.  California’s leaders must understand that their constituents care about a functioning government, and while not the only way, they need to see it in the protests.

So, there will be an array of protests over the next few weeks. If you have details on anything, please post it in the comments.  And if you are in SF, please join me for a the HIV/AIDS protest at 10 AM at City Hall.