Prop 8 -- March Saturday 14 November 2008

Yesterday's march

Saturday morning about 09:30 I got down to the location for the 'action' that was to take place later, for the march against Prop 8. The day was awesome.. beautiful warm weather.

Met with a group of about 30 of us, and we chose our paths along the lines of direct action or peace keepers. The CD (Civil Disobedience) folks otherwise known as being the ones to take direct action were wearing white shirts labeled 'Repeal Prop 8' and they were the ones who would risk arrest. The rest of us were there as peace keepers, designed to keep the crowd back and make sure nothing happened to the direct action folks. We also were to help the crowd understand what was going on, and to keep the chants going.

When we got to 10th and Market we discovered that the rally had already broken up, and thousands were marching already! The energy was awesome. Was wonderful to see so many folks come out against Prop 8.

Prop 8 was/is a proposition of Hate. Designed to amend the California State Constitution to /ban/ same-sex couples from getting married. We've already been through this with the Knight Initiative (Prop 22) when the CA Supreme Court overturned this as being un-constitutional. And now we have to deal with this again??? Only this time it's worse. To place wording in the Constitution restricting one group of people.. that is just wrong. The Constitution should be about inclusion, not exclusion.

Back to the march: We decided at that point to set up our direct action then at the highway exit and entrance to US 101. That would put us right at Market and Octavia. Seeing as how there were already thousands marching and blocking the exit we decided to go for it. Our direct action folks too charge and led the way! They fanned out along the exit for 101 and sat down. 15 people evenly spaced took up quite a bit of room! As crowd control we kept the chants going for a long time and kept folks to a reasonable distance. And the chanting.. we kept chanting over and over. We were claiming our streets back.

The crowd was /so/ very supportive of us and kept the chants, the clapping, the screaming going for a long time. I estimate that we were there for a good 45 minutes.

Our police liaison worked with the commander in charge and he said, after awhile, that he would end up having to arrest the direct action folks, who were now standing, linking arms. He made sure that no one would resist arrest and that things would go peacefully. So, while the rest of us moved away and got back onto the sidewalks he and his officers calmly arrested the folks who had been willing to be arrested for this event. While the crowd was cheering and screaming and taking photos, they were all put into the vans and drove off.

Yes, it wasn't a huge riot that ended up in a fight, but it did show the world that these folks were willing to be arrested for the cause of fighting Prop 8/Hate. I applaud those individuals with all of my heart. Thank you for putting yourself out there and showing the rest of the world what you were willing to do for us.

All in all there were thousands at the Rally at Civic Center, and I counted 3 distinct marches going on throughout the next few hours. And, as I've seen some news footage it looks like this was taking place all across the country and in Canada and the UK.

People, this is our civil rights movement. We need to fight back, we need to make sure that Prop 8 is overturned. Call your Congressional Representatives, call your California Senators. Urge them to fight for our rights.

If we don't.. no one will.