About 2,000 people gathered at San Jose City Hall today as part of a nationwide day of protest against Prop 8 and for equal rights. We started by gathering in four locations – the San Jose Museum of Art, Metropolitan Community Church, St. James Park, and the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center. I'd carpooled in with my friend Ms. V and a friend of hers, and we started at St. James Park, handing out extra Vote No on Prop 8 signs left over from the campaign. Although we could have gone to the Mountain View rally closer to home, we'd chosen San Jose to be part of something bigger, and to be with our community from the DeFrank Center and the South Bay No on 8 campaign. Almost immediate we ran into Nan Coley, a friend and former colleague who had provided the inspiration for my blog post last night, Waiting for Proof. We continued handing out signs until we ran out, when I found more friends, the Shmilas, who I had introduced 12 years ago, and who were married on November 2. Ms. V ran into her ex and they caught up on their lives. And we ran into a straight couple active in PFLAG, who we'd met through the campaign. His sign (photo right) was so popular people kept asking him to pose for pictures and videos.

Then we were given the signal and started walking, and as we spread down the sidewalk we started to get an idea of how many of us had gathered. A news helicopter circled overhead as protestors converged on City Hall from the four starting places.
The crowd included LGBT and straight, young and old, parents and kids, teachers and students, leaders and members of faith communities, Hispanic Americans, African-Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders, the full diversity of the San Jose community. We surrounded the fountains on the City Hall plaza as barefoot children played in the water. We chanted (2-4-6-8 Love does not discriminate! What do we want? Equal rights! When do we want them? NOW!). We strained to hear speakers like DeFrank Executive Director Aejaie Sellers, and cheered when cars passing by honked their horns in support.

The mood was mostly upbeat. Although I'd been nervous about a possible counter-protest, we met no resistance on our march to City Hall and we found none on the plaza. I later read in the San Jose Mercury News that there had been a handful of Yes on 8 protestors across the street, but from our vantage point at the bottom of the fountain they could be neither seen nor heard. The messages were positive. Although it was sorely disappointing that Prop 8 had passed, it had been defeated in Santa Clara County where the Knight Initiative had passed. Although many in the LGBT community had been stunned by the election results, that had mobilized our community across the country. Volunteers from the DeFrank Center circulated with clipboards to sign up volunteers ready to commit to fighting for marriage equality. They invited us to a community meeting on Monday night to plan next steps. As we stood in the sun and cheered and waved our signs, I forgot to be angry at those who had waited to volunteer until after Prop 8 had passed. We can only move forward, and this crowd appeared ready to do the work. Now if we can only hang on to that energy.

(From the Courage Campaign’s own Rick Jacobs. – promoted by David Dayen)

About thirty of us gathered in front of the closed Starbucks on the plaza in front of the LA courthouse to assemble our petition materials for the rally and march a few blocks away. MoveOn.org, Courage Campaign (full disclosure: I founded Courage) and Credo Mobile have, over the past week, gathered over 200,000 signatures on a pledge to repeal Prop. 8. Our group that met for the first time this morning, was volunteers who signed up to get more sigatures from the crowd. And boy did they ever!

We made our way to the staging area outside of City Hall where we were greeted by thousands of jubilant folks with home made signs. The backstage set up reminded me in some ways of the May 1, 2006 immigration march on Wilshire Boulevard that had also sprung up from the peoplem, but was managed by organized labor: there was security, a rope line, a little blue tent under which speakers gathered before their turn. Rodney Scott, who puts on LA Pride every year, did a brilliant job with logistics along with a new group of young people called FAIR.  

Just once, it would have been great to have a crowd with that energy and spirit talk to the people on the podium rather than have the elected officials and others talk to them. Theprogram was generally good, but way too long, ninety minutes while people waited in 90 degree heat. One speaker went on for nearly twenty minutes, apparently mistaking a rally for a filibuster.

Mayor Villaraigosa broke away from these horrible fires that have now dumped smoke into all of LA and destroyed numerous houses, to give an impassioned speech in English and Spanish telling us all to go talk to our neighbors and at churches, not to wait for another election. Meet people whom we do not know, break down barriers with familiarity. And he's right. That's the only way to win human rights struggles.

Rev. Eric Lee, President of the Southern Chrisitan Leadership Conference of California, gave a stirring and powerful speech about the need to put God back into church when it comes to this issue of human rights. He said, "I'm a straight black man who went" with me to the Mormon Temple three weeks ago to try to deliver 17,000 letters from Courage Campaign members to the President of the Church. He went because it was the right thing to do. He is a stand up guy, a true friend of the LGBT and progressive communities, a powerful voice for civility and dignity in our march to justice. We all need to get to know him much better.

Many of the other speakers were great, too, including City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and long time LGBT activist Torie Osborn. There were just too many of them.

At last, we marched. The crowd was animated, colorful, respectful and determined.

The most meaningful part of the day, though, was a meeting late this afternoon at the apartment of a young man named Vincent Jones. Vincent, a gay African American, pulled together about a dozen gay, straight, white, black and brown men and women for a serious conversation about how to build real conversation in communities where we lost. I was knocked out by these folks.

Zach Shepard, one of the guys who led the first spontaneous march here in LA two Wednesdays ago said, "In places like San Bernardino County we lost 70-30%, but that means that we have 30% of the voters there who support us. We need to find them, engage them and empower them to start talking to their neighbors." One of the other participants said, "come to church. Meet people. You will be welcomed." And she's right. As Woody Allen says, 90% of life is showing up.

We did not show up before the election; we will now. The power of today's march here in LA came was in the numbers and determination of individuals who are themselves leading a movement. The are not looking "up" for any established organization to tell them what to do. They know we can win next time, provided we organize, communicate and build.

This time, the campaign will be the peoples, a real movement. And this time we will win.

Despite threatening weather, organizers estimated that nearly 5,000 people came out to City Hall in Boston, MA to stand together as supporters of marriage equality.  Organizers, including local politicians, leaders with Mass Equality, and U.S. Congressional Representatives Rep. Nikki Tsongas and Rep. Edward Markey all spoke to the crowd.  

Massachusetts made history in 2004 when it became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.  That thought was not lost on organizers today, many of whom traveled to California in the lead up to the vote on Proposition 8 to help with the No on 8 campaign.  State Rep. Carl Sciortino read from the Constitution of the State of California, “All people are by nature free and independent and have certain inalienable rights.”  Thus launched the demonstration.

Some quotes and highlights:

Rep. Nikki Tsongas (D-Mass.): “We are a partner with everyone across the country when it comes to bringing about marriage equality.”

State Rep. Byron Rushing: “I am here this afternoon because we are engaged in struggle.  If there is no struggle, there is no progress.  We are here to struggle.  In this democracy, marriage is a civil institution, and in a democracy, all civil institutions must be open to all who qualify.”

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass): (Reflecting on the fact that gay marriage is now illegal in California, while it is legal here in Massachusetts) “There is one thing that distinguishes Massachusetts from California on the issue of gay marriage.  We are right, and they are wrong! … Gays should have the same rights as straights.  As God’s children, they should have the same rights straights have.  Everyone is entitled to full rights under the U.S. Constitution, so now we engage in this great struggle.  … They asked the ancient Greek philosopher when we would know full and true justice.  And he answered: We would know true justice when all of those who have not been harmed are as angry as those who have!”  

Gary Daffin (LGBT political activist and Executive Director, Multicultural AIDS Coalition): “Here in Massachusetts, we wanted our brothers and sisters in California to wake up after the Election and relax and feel at home in their country.  It took Black people 400 years for us to feel at home in our own country.  It might not take the LGBT community 400 years, but we need to keep fighting.”

Heather Baker (special ed teacher and Boston LGBT rights activst): “We are the American family, we live next door to you, we teach your children, we take care of your elderly. We need equal rights across the country.”

Even though the weather wasn’t picture perfect, the scene outside of Boston City Hall was.  And yeah, that may sound cheesy, but the energy level at today’s “Join the Impact” rally in Boston gave me faith that we can build this national movement to ensure marriage equality, and work to foster LGBT rights in all 50 states.

To view a set of photos from the Boston “Join the Impact” rally, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…

To view a few You Tube clips from today’s event, go to:

http://gayrights.change.org  

(Oakland checking in! – promoted by Dante Atkins (hekebolos))

(Cross-posted at Living in the O.)

This morning, after some bus mishaps (omg, I can’t wait for BRT!), my girlfriend and I arrived in front of Oakland City Hall for the Join the Impact rally for equal rights. It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was great to see thousands of advocates gathered in Frank Ogawa Plaza.

The crowd was incredibly diverse – filled with people of every age, gender, race, and sexual orientation. And there were so many families – kids everywhere! It was great to run into so many people I know and to see so many others I’d never met before. Serendipitously, one of the first people I ran into was Matthew, my precinct walking partner on election day. We formed a special bond that day, a bond that can only be formed by going door to door in a hilly precinct where most doors were up several flights of stairs. It was so great to see that the election results hadn’t gotten him down too much and that he was still working towards marriage equality.

Several LGBT leaders gave moving speeches throughout the day, but the star of the show was Coby, a boy whose parents started an LGBT family coalition. He started off saying that for many years he didn’t know that there were people who didn’t approve of his parents’ union. He didn’t realize that his family was different from others because, well, they’re his family. Coby went on to explain that when he heard kids at his school make fun of gay people, he thought it was because they didn’t understand what it meant to be gay. His mothers then made an effort to educate the students at his school, and ultimately, he thought that kids understood this issue more than many adults and should have more say in our society.

After him and his mother spoke, the rally organizer introduced Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland Council Member-elect who is the first out lesbian to be elected to the city council. She talked about how strange election night was, and her story closely mirrored my own election night emotional roller coaster ride. At 8:00pm, Rebecca found out that Obama had been elected president, and shortly after that she found out that she had won her council seat with 62% of the vote. So for the next three hours, she celebrated, joining hundreds of people spontaneously partying in the streets of downtown Oakland. But then she started to face the fact that Prop 8 was going to pass. Rebecca spent the next day crying, wondering at the irony that she was just elected to the council but was also stripped of her human rights. She ended her speech by saying that this fight for equality is not about fighting against faith. After all, her own faith tells her not to eat pork, but she’s not forcing that rule onto others. After speaking, she lifted her shofar (a ram’s horn) and blew loudly, as the crowd erupted into cheers.

Sean Sullivan, who ran for an Oakland City Council seat in June and who currently is the development director for Equality California, was up next. He started off talking about the myth that has been spread around that Prop 8 was about blacks vs whites. Sean reminded us that Fox News had started spreading this myth, but that it is not the case. All you had to do was look around the diverse crowd in Oakland this morning to see how right he was about this. Sean then delved into the history of this fight, explaining that Equality California has been working for years to secure the right for same-sex couples to marry. He  said that the fight is not over – they’re currently taking this fight to the California Supreme Court and preparing to put an initiative on the ballot in 2010. Sean implored all of us to join this fight because it won’t be an easy one – we’ll need everyone who cares working hard to help make marriage equality a reality.

It was a very inspiring day for me and helped bring some amount of closure to the mixed emotions I’ve been feeling since election night. After seeing such energy in Oakland, and reading about incredible rallies throughout the country, I feel confident that we will overturn Proposition 8 and restore equality in California and beyond.

My girlfriend and I took hundreds of photos, but here are some of my favorites:

For a bunch more incredible photos of the Oakland Join the Impact rally, check out The Inadvertent Gardener’s Flickr page.

(The impact has been joined. – promoted by Dante Atkins (hekebolos))

Yes, Ventura, there is a Progressive Left–and it came in force today for Join the Impact.  It’s a common joke here that we live in “Ventucky“, though our situation less resembles that of the deep South and more that of a clinging outpost of Red, stuck between the swaths of Blue that are Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.  We have the gag-worthy Gallegly as our representative, and even unprincipled liars like Tony Strickland somehow manage to attract over half the population here to vote for them.  True, the demographics have been changing with voter registrations to match, but that has translated neither into electoral gains nor significant grassroots activity in the Democratic and progressive community–though that is changing due to the tireless efforts of people like our new VCDP Communications Director Brian Leshon.

But today a sea of Blue washed up on the Ventura shores in front of the Old San Buenaventura Mission to let Ventura and all of California know that yes, we do exist.  And no, we’re not taking it lying down anymore.  Unfortunately, the pictures here don’t do the crowd justice; an amateur photographer is emailing me some pics that I’ll be putting up as soon as I get them.

The Join the Impact protestors began our march at noon in front of the Mission, walking through downtown, over the 101 Freeway overpass and back again, before regrouping on both sides of the street in front of the mission, with overflow into Mission Park.

On the overpass…

I’ve been involved in many protests over the years, but I have to say without question that this was the most amazing, uplifting demonstration I’ve ever been a part of, for a few very important reasons:

• Focus.  The bane of the progressive protest march over the last few decades has been the lack of attention to message unity.  Markos Moulitsas discusses this problem at length in his book Crashing the Gate: activists such as those with A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition end up using the occasion to fight for causes ranging from freeing Mumia to impeaching Bush to end the wars in Iraq to acceptance of LGBT rights.  Here, there was but one message and one focus, reinforced by the ubiquitous chant: “What do we want?  Equal Rights!  When do we want it?  Now!”
• Diversity and Family-Friendliness.  All too often the word “diversity” has been seen especially by those on the Right as a politically correct code word for the disproportionately vocal influence of one or more specific minorities.  But for the actual crowd that attended, it might have been easy to dismiss this protest simply as the gay community venting its frustrations.  On the contrary: the couples that had gathered skewed more hetero than same-sex, and many had brought their families and small children along with them.  The visual impact of this phenomenon on the conservative and fence-sitting mind cannot be exaggerated.   Add to this the multi-racial, truly rainbow aspect of the event, and it was not only a joy to behold, but a consternation to those who would insult this movement as merely a special interest, rather than a truly broad-based fight for equal Civil Rights.
• The Support of the Community.  There were no counter-protesters anywhere in sight, and most of the cars that passed us were honking, even as their passengers rolled down their windows to flash a quick thumbs up or peace sign.  Sure, there were a few nuts in pickup trucks screaming some gibberish about eternal damnation and displaying a hateful middle finger here and there (one of them was so consumed with rage that he very nearly rear-ended the car in front of him), but they were themselves a distinct minority.  Downtown Ventura was truly supportive of our cause, and it felt truly righteous being a part of the next step for civil rights in America.  As one baby boomer activist said,
  

  “Man, this really is just like the 60s.   I haven’t seen a gathering with this kind of positive energy in a long, long time.  It’s amazing to see.”

I couldn’t agree more.  My girlfriend KK and I spent the final 45 minutes gathering signatures for the Courage Campaign’s Proposition 8 repeal.  On that form was a checkbox asking if the signatory would like to volunteer for the cause.  Nearly every single box was checked, and nearly every single zip code a Ventura resident.  These people were not here just to vent for a day: they were here to be a part of something bigger for the long term.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, and gives me hope for the long term not only for the future of civil rights in America, but for the future of progressive politics here in “Ventucky” as well.

It was definitely fire-and-brimstone time in Los Angeles today as approximately 15,000 “No On 8/Join The Impact” protestors gathered near the steps of LA City Hall. Major fires both north and south of us ringed the city in smoke even as the skies above remained a brilliant blue. But neither the fires nor the freakishly warm temperatures (in the 90’s) did much to affect attendance.

A few observations:

The City establishment was surprisingly well represented considering the fires. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, LA’s first and only openly gay council member, was the first to speak, followed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a number of dignitaries in the Gay and Lesbian community, and City Attorney Rocky Delligadio (who talked about the upcoming legal challenges)

Protesters held all manner of home-made signs (my husband, who worked with me on the general election, remarked how refreshing it was to see so much diversity compared to the graphic uniformity of the Obama campaign).

My favorite, held by a very good looking man in his early twenties, read “Are you sure you want me marrying your daughter?”

In general, I’d say the crowd, though largely young, couldn’t be typified as a West Hollywood protest crowd. We saw a lot of couples and families with young children. We also saw a lot of older couples – men and women in their 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s.

There were quite a few heterosexual couples supporting the protesters. Counter protests were non-existent, except for one lone Jesus freak holding up the obligatory “Repent Or Die” sign.

Whatever heavy lifting absent from the pre-election campaign was in evidence here. I got the clear sense from the crowd and speakers that this was a movement in process – neither beginning nor ending, and everyone was in it for the long haul.  

Seattle has our back. Big time. This picture at right is of the huge march down Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood – the Emerald City’s version of the Castro. A friend in the crowd spoke to someone in Mayor Greg Nickels’ office who estimated over 12,000 people were in this march.

I will have more photos and information up later once my sources get their stuff uploaded and sent to me. The Stranger has some more photos of the march.

Prop 8 is catalyzing a nationwide marriage equality movement. Washington State’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s marriage ban in a shocking 2006 decision widely believed to have been motivated by 3 liberal justices facing well-funded conservative challengers that year (WA elects Supreme Court justices in contested races). But marriage equality advocates have vowed to undo this by, piece by piece, legalizing marriage.

With 2/3 majorities in both houses and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire winning reelection last week, Democrats in Olympia are now strongly considering overturning the state’s marriage ban (which exists in the law and not the state constitution) as marriage rights activists mobilize in the Evergreen State.

Our opponents may have won the Prop 8 battle but it may prove to have been a pyrrhic victory.

“What do we want?” “Equality!” “When do we want it?” “Now!”

That has been the rallying cry the past few weeks as thousands have gathered in Sacramento, out in the streets, in the public square and in front of the State Capitol.  Today we gathered in Cesar Chavez square right in front of the Sacramento City Hall.  The police I talked to estimated the crowd between 1,000-2,000 people.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside with our community, in joint action, to speak out against the rights that were taken away from so many Californians on election day.

The rally was one of hundreds of Join the Impact protests planned for today in small towns and big cities across the country.  It was the brainchild of an ordinary activist who thought big, built a platform and watched it explode.

The main organizer of this event was a new local group called Equality Action Now.  They have put together a website and an email list, were selling t-shirts, gathering donations, got the permits and loudspeakers, and coordinated a list of speakers to address the thousands of gay people and their allies.  It is truly incredible to see the work people are putting into organizing in their own communities.  They are not the traditional standard bearers of the equality movement or the large organizations.  These are few people who stood up and decided to be leaders.  They are the strength of this new movement for equality.

These local, impassioned and empowered new organizers and leaders are the reason why the next time marriage equality is on the ballot we will win.  We have all felt the taste of defeat and the pain of having our rights taken away.  All of us can and must do more than we did this past time.

For those who haven’t been to one of these rallies, I will try and explain the emotions being there, especially as a gay woman.  At first it is a thrill to see so many people, people you didn’t know existed, gathering today for the same purpose.  Then you feel a sense of power being amongst the crowds, the unity of purpose, the strength in numbers.  But then sadness starts to creep in and the pain of realizing what transpired to make this happen.  It is emotional and tough to stand there and chant for rights you once had and chant against your fellow Californians who voted to take away those rights from you.

Today, I ended up leaving before the march around the Capitol, because it was too hard on my girlfriend to be there, sharing an intimate pain in such a public manner.  This is still raw, still painful.  It will always be emotional, but the anguish should fade.  Hopefully, the energy will not.  We need all of the people rallying together across the state and country to put in the hard work to repeal Prop 8.

More about the rally on the flip, including pictures…

Freddie Oakley, the Yolo County Registrar, was a bit nervous addressing the crowd.  It was the largest one she had ever addressed, but she did a great job.  She delighted in telling us the story of her getting kicked out of her church.  You see for the past few Valentines days, same-sex couples have come into her office requesting marriage licenses.  While she could not grant them, she would issue a statement regretting the lack of equality.  Evidently, this motivated a few people to protest in front of her church.  Her pastor eventually asked her to resign, which she was more than happy to do.  Why would she want to be affiliated with a church that so sharply conflicted with her own values?

My favorite sign was held by a soldier in desert cammos: “I fought for EVERYBODY’S Freedom and Happiness!!!”.

Unfortunately, there were a few people across the street with very large signs telling us “A Moral Wrong Cannot Be a Civil Right”.  Anybody with an opposing view who wants to chime in below?  The detractors had a few kids holding up signs.  There were perhaps a dozen people over there, and it was about half black and half white.

The local Fox and NBC affiliates had cameras wandering around, and I saw a few other print media interviewing rally attendees, so there is bound to be some press coverage.

I have a few more pictures from today up on my flickr No on 8 photoset.

full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Police expected 5,000 people today for San Diego’s Join the Impact march against Prop 8. Police are currently estimating 20,000 marchers turned out in support of equality (link will also lead to some cool pics and video). Organizers upped their estimate early this morning to 25,000 and they’re sticking with that number. Either way, it doubles last week’s 10K strong San Diego march.

I arrived at the jumping off point at the appointed 10am hour. There were thousands of people spread throughout Balboa Park- old and young, gay and straight, male and female, all races and ethnicities. Some were alone, some came with families, some with groups of friends. It took about 30 minutes to get things organized, in part probably because of people like me who were working the crowd as much as possible. And I’ll tell you how I knew right away that this was a really big deal: While I’m sure many were there, I didn’t see a single person I know from political activism. But I saw people I knew from my neighborhood, from bars, from sports, from music, from church. In other words, this wasn’t the same old political demonstration with the same old faces. This was everyone who normally don’t obsess about politics. People who normally may not even be out of bed at 10am on a Saturday much less marching for miles in the 85 degree heat. This wasn’t politics, this was a movement.

I was very careful to pack my trusty Flip Video, and I got some shaky clips of the beginning of the march (above) and the pivot from 6th Avenue to Broadway (right). The march ran a three mile course south on 6th Avenue along Balboa Park, west through downtown on Broadway, and up Pacific Highway past the Star of India before culminating at the County Administration Building (where marriage licenses are issued). Gloria Allred, city councilman-elect Todd Gloria and reps from the ACLU, Equality California and the Human Rights campaign were on the docket for the rally between the building and the bay.

Chant sheets were everywhere and the chants rarely stopped. The homemade signs were plentiful and ran the gamut from Lincoln to Hitler and Chickens to Satan. I was pleasantly impressed though by the VAST majority of people embracing the positive messaging. People get that this is about love, acceptance and equality. And that abandoning that is to let agents of intolerance win.

The only arrest reported at this point was a member of the Minutemen. Which is a nice juxtaposition to the experience of marching through downtown. Cars honked in solidarity, people cheered from balconies and streamed out of offices and hotels to root us on and give high-fives. In the course of 3 downtown miles, I spotted maybe 7 Yes on 8 folks. Organizers kept people reasonably well behaved, and nothing advanced beyond an occasionally aggressive air horn. Heck, the handful of unattended Yes signs we passed had police attendants.

This is just one of the first reports to come today. There are more than 300 events scheduled throughout the state and across the country. And I said to a friend who marched with me, “You will not be able to stay home brother.

…

Because…people will be in the street looking for a brighter day.

…

The revolution will be live.”