Please read!! - Another national protest in the works
 

It appears that another national protest is being organized as a response to the California Supreme Court's upcoming decision on marriage equality.

From the Advocate News:

"By organizing now, we are also sending a message to the court that people are watching what they do, and that if it's a bad decision, our community will not go softly into the night," said Thayer, cofounder of Chicago's Gay Liberation Network. "We will react with a justified anger at one of the worst, and most cowardly court decisions of our era. If we win, these actions will be celebrations and an attempt to push the momentum of a California victory to other states and regions."


Here's the entire article ---> http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid74726.asp


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Rick

So there's absolutely no damn feedback about this at all?!! No interest whatsoever?

Interest
 

Hey Rick,
Of course, I think people are interested. However, you asked that we please read it...not to comment on it. Now, I know you wanted feedback so I will give you some. I think it is a great idea and I think it is something needed in every state. There are many who think that we will just eventually go away and that is not going to happen.

Bill

Thanks Bill. I guess my expectations were that people would read the news and say, "YES!! WE NEED TO GET LOUD AND ANGRY IF THE COURT'S DECISION IS AGAINST US!! OUT OF THE CLOSETS AND INTO THE STREETS!!"

And when nobody did that, I thought, "WTF?"

If the California Supreme Court does not invalidate the constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage then we need to raise hell! We need to let America know that we will not accept second class citizenship.

We need to come out of the damn closet and into the g**damn streets!!!

AGAIN!!

Rick

Thanks Bill. I guess my expectations were that people would read the news and say, "YES!! WE NEED TO GET LOUD AND ANGRY IF THE COURT'S DECISION IS AGAINST US!! OUT OF THE CLOSETS AND INTO THE STREETS!!"

And when nobody did that, I thought, "WTF?"

If the California Supreme Court does not invalidate the constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage then we need to raise hell! We need to let America know that we will not accept second class citizenship.

We need to come out of the damn closet and into the g**damn streets!!!

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AGAIN!!

Rick

I got the email blast today. I'm on travel status for work, so not much on the computer for personal reasons. But, the organizers had wanted to put together a national march on Washington. It appears that they may have rethought that given the state of the economy and have now proposed a national march but to take place in various locations in the US. I think it's a fabulous idea.

Here is my take: rallies and protests and the like are great (and useful). However, I've been a bit disappointed at our two latest events in Sacramento. The attendance has been extremely light given the gay population in the area and the (then) upcoming Supreme Court hearings (esp being the state Capitol). VERY light. We had about 500 show up for the Feb 16 rally, of course it rained, but no self-respecting protester should let that get in the way of a rally! We had some major name speakers and performers, and I think 500 is about it for the day.

Mar 4 we had a couple hundred show up for our Eve of Justice vigil. It was a very enthusiastic 200, but still, come on folks this is the CAPITOL of CA. You know, Prop 8 and all. Sheesh.

I know we are all busy and have a life to live. And there have been several events since election day. But I wonder how bad we really want equality??? I know we can't judge that strictly on rallies. Others are doing things also. Writing letters, community outreach (I'm involved in faith outreach) and all sorts of actions. But it does puzzle that more GLBT folks don't join in. Especially considering that a good number of attendees are our straight supporters. Probably close to half if not more than.

Get involved, please. :love::love:

We are all busy here in California. Writing letters to the editors, writing blogs, trying to network, forming coalitions among all the different gay and lesbian groups.

Thank you all for your help, don't give up now we need to abolish DOMA :pray: as well.

Remember, that even if we gain states right to marry, it is still not recognized Federally, so we are still short on equal rights.:tdown:

:running:Time is running out.

It is only common sense that major demonstrations are set up well in advance
 

No experienced organizer will expect much turnout, if s/he knows that there is only a 24 hour warning/lead time.

If and when enough states legalize us, the feds will begin to talk about getting rid of DOMA.

Tdogg, I think your posting sums things up the best of any I've seen here.

Peace, Love, and Let's Make Some Noise, Bruce Chris

Whatever happened to the civil rights movement, like in MILK, the shear numbers and organization of the movement? Getting 1,000's of people to march in a moments notice?

Now adays we have to plan it and get it approved though the local goverment.

These days we are to complacent or have no faith in the system that we don't even bother anymore.

Whatever happened to the passion of pursueing our civil rights?

I agree. But planning ahead in this particular situation may be a good idea.

A series of rallies planned ahead of time in anticipation of the California Supreme Court's decision is a good idea because, if the decision is against marriage equality, many LGBT will be angry. Judging by my own feelings of anger and frustration even before the Court's decision, (and I live in North Carolina) I think there's a good chance that some LGBT people in California will be feeling a much more elevated feeling of frustration and anger if the decision is bad. Planning controlled rallies ahead of time allows time to organize a way for the anger to be used effectively in a non-violent manner.

Loud protest demonstrations can be very effective. Turning over a car, not so effective.

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Rick

1) It seems like this would be easier to plan for people if they knew when to plan it for: I'm all about showing up to these things if only just to be counted as a number, but I can't really commmit if I don't know when it's gonna pop up (or even approx. time of day etc).

2)With any crowd large enough, I think there's always a very subtle threat of violence. I'm not maybe as nonviolent as other folks here, and so I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. The idea is that there's massive, massive crowds, and they're gathered there specifically because they're angry. The more nonviolent they are, the more constraint they're showing, but everyone knows what it's like to be angry. It's like "Yes, this is how many people we have. And we WILL gather together in our righteous anger. We're behaving ourselves, but just imagine what we could do if we weren't."
It's not exactly drawing a line in the sand, but it does suggest that people are getting closer and closer to a more subtle line at which point we stop showing that restraint.
I'm not condoning violence, especially over something like marriage equality, but I am just kind of observing how that kind of subtle dialogue goes. I think that even if there were some way to fully remove that element from peaceful protests, they wouldn't be nearly as effective worldwide.

hey!
 

when, where and what time is the protest?! :)

I guess I dont know what to say. I still think and will always think that sometimes, just sometimes, you have to do more than quietly march and protest. We have to not only be present but make enough of a fuss to make it noticed.

No one would have cared about Rodney Kings beating if the African Americans of that city would have protested silently and respectfully. It got noticed and something got done because windows were broken and arson happened, etc. I am in no way saying we need to become arsonists, but I think the time for silent and gracious protesting have passed and have not yielded us the results we have fought so hard for.

I do not by nature like violence, nor do I encourage it but I feel that sometimes it is the only option. Sometimes you can't go quietly. I guess I am at that point.

If we protest, we need to do so loudly and hold up traffic and make a scene. We need to stop businesses from working that day and prevent people from driving in the streets. We need to cause others to join us with our railey. We need to plug up church entrances so the people whom voted against us, against our rights, can't enjoy theirs...the freedom to worship as they choose. We need to make enough of a racket that we get noticed and others think we will not just forget it and go away.

The time for laying down has passed. And I am still angry and will remain so I think for a long time.....:(

To check out actions (or post actions/events) look up jointheimpact.com. You might have to Google "jointheimpact wet paint" which lists upcoming events. It is mainly for CA, but national events are included. I believe the Million March is on the website. PM me if you want more information, I can scroll thru my emails and point you to the right direction for more info.

The protests here in Sacramento have been fairly lively, but at the Capitol you HAVE to have prior permission from CHP. They have to have patrol and make sure no other event has been reserved for the area. We've had some incredible speakers, performers at rallies. But still, the light turnout is puzzling. I know the events are advertised pretty widely, but maybe it's not enough?

There is a rally in Sacramento planned towards the end of May. Probably the Saturday over Memorial day weekend. You can check out Join the impact or Equality Action Now. I'm not sure if info is up quite yet. In addition, Equality Action Now is developing a means to have an 'on-call' event but it will be difficult as we'll probably only get a 24 hour notice that a decision is forthcoming. Believe me, there will be protests in the streets everywhere if Prop 8 is upheld and celebrations if overturned.

You need to check out Join the impact and Equality Action Now as soon as you hear the CSC will present its decision. It will pretty much be spur of the moment, put together last minute but we need PARTICIPANTS!!! (I almost put "partipants" LOL)

Just a march or quiet protest would not have the effect of changing anything long-term. But I question whether major disruptions would have any desirable effect. Wouldn't obstructing traffic only create backlash? Or, fair question perhaps, would it perhaps only raise to the surface the backlash that is already present from the few gains the LGBT community has made in the past decade? I don't know. I do know that if a demonstration turned into a violent mob, I would leave. I have no desire to be part of violent action. And if we did have violent mobs, I think we would lose ground.

But it's still true that just standing there with candles or whatever would get nothing accomplished. Neither will we make progress by impeding peoples' access to church or wherever (which is illegal anyway, isn't it?) Retaliation won't get us the result we want, however justified the retaliation might seem to be.

IF the decision in CA goes down badly, then something needs to happen that will be an effective public demonstration - but not just of anger! That would be ineffective. What needs to be demonstrated is the REASON for the anger. We need to convey to people the nature of the wrong that was done, we would need to express accurately and succinctly that an injustice was done and be able to explain exactly why it's wrong in a short, quotable statement. Whatever demonstrations happen need to be geared not just towards the venting of personal feelings (in fact, I would say public demonstrations are precisely the place NOT to vent personal feelings,) but towards conveying a message that generates desired results - such as more allies.

I'm not sure what that demonstration would look like. But I do have an idea. What I say we need, and I've said this since November, is we need people marching in the streets by the hundreds EVERY week until we have the equal justice under law that America promises. We need to be out marching not just on March 4th or May whatever, but every single week. Every day if we could get folks to do it. The demonstrations need to be absolutely ongoing and we need to be utterly relentless.

Why did we stop marching after November? That's the problem. We need to Keep It Up.

I don't know how much publicity the latest events in Sacramento have gotten, but in order to have a big turn-out there has to be a lot of excitment generated.

I've told this story before on this forum, but when I lived in Minneapolis in 1982, news got out that Jerry Falwell was coming to town to hold a Moral Majority rally at the Auditorium. We only had about a week's notice. I was part of a small group of activists who organized a protest. We printed up thousands of 8X11 fliers and immediately began to leaflet all the gay bars in the city. Using a staple gun, I covered over half the telephone polls in South Minneapolis from Loring Park to Lake Street with hundreds of fliers of the protest. I put a 3'X5' poster at the entrance of the city's most popular gay disco with huge words announcing; JERRY FALWELL IS COMING TO MINNEAPOLIS!!

When Jerry Falwell arrived at the auditorium for the "God and Country" rally in April 1982 he was met by a very loud crowd of over 1,000 protesters. The protest dominated the local news and even made the headlines in Milwaukee. The media attention of the protest overshadowed Falwell's message. He was so bothered by it that on a national talk show the following week he mentioned the "angry mob of militant homosexuals" that greeted him in Minneapolis.

My point is, to have a successful protest you have to generate a lot of enthusiasm and excitement with lots and lots of publicity. The more excited people are, the bigger the turnout.


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Rick

We didn't have Jerry Falwell on Feb 16th of course, but we had some major stars - well at least in the 'gay' world. Flyers went up everywhere. It was all over the web. Word of mouth. 5,000 to 10,000 were expected. Then, bad weather and no one came. Ok, about 500 came, but 1/10 to 1/20th of expected turnout.

But...maybe you have a point. Maybe it's not the famous people or advocates or speakers or singers that will bring folks out. Maybe it's the 'bad' people. But that work only if it happened, and so far we haven't had anyone on that side in the area.

The economy certainly has some effect. We aren't getting the folks from southern CA or the bay area like in November. I agree with Zerbie, that we should be in the streets weekly. But the folks who normally put on the rallies here are afraid that too many will discourage attendance.

Ok, food for thought. Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps we just need to come up with new, creative ideas for generating interest. Or maybe I just happen to live in the wrong part of the state.

I would not want to see it become a rock throwing contest, or overturn cars or push down people, but a good solid anger may help people to understand that we are serious.

As for blocking streets and such....We had a Latin protest here and it was suppost to be a peacefull march about letting Mexicans and such into the US. Well, so many showed up that they overflowed the sidewalks, backed up traffic and blocked access to churches, store etc. They were so big that all the police could do was try to direct traffic around them and encourage them to stay on the sidewalks. They chanted and got so loud you could hear them for blocks! It got news crews out there and the whole city got talking about it and ya know what? Laws and rules got passed also. It worked for them so why not us?

I do agree with you that I would not want to be part of violence to harm a person. And I do agree that we need to let them know we are angry and why. I think the right expects it to pass and us to crawl back into the closets and accept, we need to drive it home that we are not going to.

So, yes, out of the closets and onto the streets, shake things up a bit. And we need to keep it up not give it up after a while, protest after protest after protests.