Photo: Jonathan Alcorn
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In what more than one protester has described as "the second Stonewall", Californians across the state have taken to the streets in spontaneous demonstrations to protest the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in May that allowed it. Here's a brief rundown of the past five days:
Day One (Nov. 5th):
While the rest of the world celebrated the election of Barack Obama, opponents of Proposition 8 gathered in gay enclaves like West Hollywood and San Francisco to hold impromptu rallies. In Los Angeles, a group of approximately 1,500 people, mostly younger, left the rally while it was still ongoing and marched up to Sunset Boulevard, forcing street closures. Police managed to divide the group, keeping 2/3 within West Hollywood.
The remaining group marched to the CNN building in Hollywood and then up to Hollywood & Highland, L.A.'s version of Times Square, where police barricading the group from entering the intersection. A tense standoff ensued, with some protesters breaking through the police lines and two being beaten by the police with billy clubs.
In all, four separate groups, about 3,000 people total, marched throughout Hollywood, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood throughout the night, with protesters holding a sit down protest at Sunset and La Cienega til 2:30am. Seven people were arrested.
Day Two (Nov. 6th)
Protesters march on the Mormon Temple in Westwood at around 2pm at the LDS Temple in Westwood (the church having donated almost 1/2 of the money raised by the Yes on 8 campaign) and moved throughout the west side of L.A., prompting the LAPD to close streets and one exit of the 405. At one point, the LAPD tried to to corral protesters back into West Hollywood, only to have the crowd reverse on them en masse at the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire and head back to the Mormon temple. Traffic throughout the area was at a standstill most of the night.
While the protest was mostly peaceful, KCAL 9 reported that one woman, Jaime Meriwether, and her four friends were beaten by "Yes on 8" protesters and they showed footage of Mormons tearing down protest signs that had been placed on the fence of the temple. The Daily News reported that Maurice Carriere, a demonstrator, was punched in the face by a man in a pickup truck with a "Yes on 8" sign. Photos of Carriere and his attacker below, sent to us by flickr user takemytaco. Two people were arrested and another two were hospitalized.
Day Three (Nov. 7th)
The focus shifted to nearby Long Beach as 2000 protesters took to the streets. In what was becoming a trend, the protest refused to stay where police asked them to and the group marched onto Broadway, heading west for two miles before overtaking an intersection. A spokesman for the LBPD told the L.A. Times that the force“were so outnumbered, we were concerned for their safety”. Seven arrests were made.
Day Four (Nov. 8th)
In the biggest day of protests yet, crowds across the state turned out in huge numbers. "Thousands" of people in San Francisco marched on Market Street, blocking traffic for a couple hours, but it was in Southern California where the largest and longest protests occurred. In San Diego an estimated 10,000 people took to the streets at noon for a 90 minute long protest with no arrests. In Los Angeles, 12,000 people turned out in Silver Lake to rally and march in a protest initially organized by anti-war group ANSWER L.A.
As the rally organizers and police encouraged people to go home, spontaneous activists took to bullhorns yelling "We didn't come here to party! We need to make them see us!" and called for the protest to move to Hollywood and Highland. The police formed a barricade, preventing approximately 2000 people from moving up Sunset. As the crowd grew in size and became angrier, the police relented and retreated. Protesters marched up the street, through stalled traffic in jubilant celebration. After negotiating with police, who coordinated with the Department of Transportation, the protesters were allowed to march from Silver Lake to Hollywood and Highland.
Along the way, others joined the group, which swelled to approximately 4000. The group overtook the intersection for 45 minutes, before police moved them south. The crowd then continued along Sunset Boulevard and the Sunset Strip, arriving around 1:30 am. The crowd finally reached West Hollywood at 2pm, where it sat down blocking the intersection of San Vicente and Santa Monica while one of the marchers, Drew Barrymore, spoke.
Day Five (Nov.9th)
On the first Sunday since Prop. 8's passage, protesters took to places of worship to make their voice heard. Nearly 300 protesters showed up outside the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. A protest in Oakland on the Mormon Temple forced police to close a nearby highway. Protesters also showed up outside the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles, the state capitol in Sacremento and at the DVD premiere of Kung Fu Panda at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Protests continue to be planned and have spread to cities across the country. (Queerty, 10-11-2008)
In what more than one protester has described as "the second Stonewall", Californians across the state have taken to the streets in spontaneous demonstrations to protest the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in May that allowed it. Here's a brief rundown of the past five days:
Day One (Nov. 5th):
While the rest of the world celebrated the election of Barack Obama, opponents of Proposition 8 gathered in gay enclaves like West Hollywood and San Francisco to hold impromptu rallies. In Los Angeles, a group of approximately 1,500 people, mostly younger, left the rally while it was still ongoing and marched up to Sunset Boulevard, forcing street closures. Police managed to divide the group, keeping 2/3 within West Hollywood.
The remaining group marched to the CNN building in Hollywood and then up to Hollywood & Highland, L.A.'s version of Times Square, where police barricading the group from entering the intersection. A tense standoff ensued, with some protesters breaking through the police lines and two being beaten by the police with billy clubs.
In all, four separate groups, about 3,000 people total, marched throughout Hollywood, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood throughout the night, with protesters holding a sit down protest at Sunset and La Cienega til 2:30am. Seven people were arrested.
Day Two (Nov. 6th)
Protesters march on the Mormon Temple in Westwood at around 2pm at the LDS Temple in Westwood (the church having donated almost 1/2 of the money raised by the Yes on 8 campaign) and moved throughout the west side of L.A., prompting the LAPD to close streets and one exit of the 405. At one point, the LAPD tried to to corral protesters back into West Hollywood, only to have the crowd reverse on them en masse at the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire and head back to the Mormon temple. Traffic throughout the area was at a standstill most of the night.
While the protest was mostly peaceful, KCAL 9 reported that one woman, Jaime Meriwether, and her four friends were beaten by "Yes on 8" protesters and they showed footage of Mormons tearing down protest signs that had been placed on the fence of the temple. The Daily News reported that Maurice Carriere, a demonstrator, was punched in the face by a man in a pickup truck with a "Yes on 8" sign. Photos of Carriere and his attacker below, sent to us by flickr user takemytaco. Two people were arrested and another two were hospitalized.
Day Three (Nov. 7th)
The focus shifted to nearby Long Beach as 2000 protesters took to the streets. In what was becoming a trend, the protest refused to stay where police asked them to and the group marched onto Broadway, heading west for two miles before overtaking an intersection. A spokesman for the LBPD told the L.A. Times that the force“were so outnumbered, we were concerned for their safety”. Seven arrests were made.
Day Four (Nov. 8th)
In the biggest day of protests yet, crowds across the state turned out in huge numbers. "Thousands" of people in San Francisco marched on Market Street, blocking traffic for a couple hours, but it was in Southern California where the largest and longest protests occurred. In San Diego an estimated 10,000 people took to the streets at noon for a 90 minute long protest with no arrests. In Los Angeles, 12,000 people turned out in Silver Lake to rally and march in a protest initially organized by anti-war group ANSWER L.A.
As the rally organizers and police encouraged people to go home, spontaneous activists took to bullhorns yelling "We didn't come here to party! We need to make them see us!" and called for the protest to move to Hollywood and Highland. The police formed a barricade, preventing approximately 2000 people from moving up Sunset. As the crowd grew in size and became angrier, the police relented and retreated. Protesters marched up the street, through stalled traffic in jubilant celebration. After negotiating with police, who coordinated with the Department of Transportation, the protesters were allowed to march from Silver Lake to Hollywood and Highland.
Along the way, others joined the group, which swelled to approximately 4000. The group overtook the intersection for 45 minutes, before police moved them south. The crowd then continued along Sunset Boulevard and the Sunset Strip, arriving around 1:30 am. The crowd finally reached West Hollywood at 2pm, where it sat down blocking the intersection of San Vicente and Santa Monica while one of the marchers, Drew Barrymore, spoke.
Day Five (Nov.9th)
On the first Sunday since Prop. 8's passage, protesters took to places of worship to make their voice heard. Nearly 300 protesters showed up outside the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. A protest in Oakland on the Mormon Temple forced police to close a nearby highway. Protesters also showed up outside the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles, the state capitol in Sacremento and at the DVD premiere of Kung Fu Panda at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Protests continue to be planned and have spread to cities across the country. (Queerty, 10-11-2008)
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Schwarzenegger tells backers of gay marriage: Don't give up (Los Angeles Times) στο σχόλιο 1
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Schwarzenegger tells backers of gay marriage: Don't give up
The governor expresses hope that Proposition 8 would be overturned as protesters continued to march outside churches across California.
By Michael Rothfeld and Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times
November 10, 2008
Reporting from Sacramento and Lake Forest -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage. He also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already wed would not see their marriages nullified by the initiative.
"It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end," Schwarzenegger said in an interview Sunday on CNN. "I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area."
With his favorable comments toward gay marriage, the governor's thinking appears to have evolved on the issue.
In past statements, he has said he believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman and has rejected legislation authorizing same-sex marriage. Yet he has also said he would not care if same-sex marriage were legal, saying he believed that such an important societal issue should be determined by the voters or the courts.
Schwarzenegger publicly opposed Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
On Sunday, he urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first. "I learned that you should never ever give up. . . . They should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done."
The governor's position on the fate of the existing same-sex marriages aligns him with California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who has said he believes that the state Supreme Court will uphold the existing marriages as valid.
The 14-word constitutional amendment does not state explicitly that it would nullify same-sex marriages performed before the Nov. 4 election, although proponents say it will. Legal experts differ on this point.
Schwarzenegger's comments came as protesters took to the streets for a fifth day in a row, sometimes marching to Catholic and Mormon churches that supported passage of the ballot measure.
Hundreds of Proposition 8 protesters in Orange County gathered down the hill from Saddleback Church in Lake Forest as several thousand congregants attended services inside the sprawling religious campus.
Martijn Hostetler, 30, of West Hollywood held a sign that read "Purpose Driven Hate," a dig at the church's celebrity Pastor Rick Warren, author of the bestseller "The Purpose-Driven Life,"who backed the ballot measure. "I don't think Jesus would approve of a gay-marriage ban," he said. "I don't think God discriminates."
While demonstrators received supportive honks from motorists, many members of the mega-church said they had little sympathy for the protesters because the matter had already been settled by voters.
"We're a democracy and our strength is that the majority wins the vote," said John Kirkpatrick, a church member.
Sherrie Derriko, a longtime Saddleback Church member and hair salon owner from Mission Viejo, said she was bothered that protesters had targeted houses of worship. As she drove by, she rolled down her window to offer some advice.
"Read the Bible. God made man and woman, and that's what a marriage is," she called from inside her SUV.
Derriko recounted the incident after attending services. "When we saw them out there, we thought, 'Why are they not over this? Do they think they're going to change anything, or are they just stirring up trouble at our church?' "
But for Sally "Sal" Landers, 52, a Saddleback Church member from Lake Forest, her participation in the protest was a deeply personal matter. Landers and her female partner of three years plan to marry and adopt children. When she received an e-mail from Warren urging a "yes" vote on Proposition 8, she said, "I felt like I was kicked in the stomach by someone who loves unconditionally."
So on Sunday, Landers joined the protesters outside the church rather than the parishioners inside. "We really love him and respect his opinion," Landers said of Warren. "I need some reassurance that I'm welcome here as a gay American citizen."
Other protests were staged outside Mormon temples or churches in Oakland, Yucca Valley and other cities.
In downtown Los Angeles, 150 protesters congregated in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, chanting, among other things, "What would Jesus say?" The crowd was joined later in the day by protesters who marched from Lincoln Park on the city's Eastside.
Some churches, to be sure, assailed Proposition 8 as discriminatory.
"We will continue to bless same-sex unions here until we can legally celebrate same-sex unions again," the Rev. Ed Bacon told 1,000 congregants during Sunday services at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, which has blessed same-sex unions for 16 years.
After the service, Bacon and other clergy members held a news conference on the church steps. They were surrounded by gay and lesbian couples, some standing with young children.
"I know these couples. I know their relationships," Bacon said, addressing a phalanx of television cameras. "They should be celebrated, rather than disparaged. . . . In the eyes of God, these people are married."
έλεος όχι και δεύτερο stonewall, δεν υπάρχει καμιά αναλογία μεταξύ των γεγονότων του stonewall κι αυτού που γίνεται τώρα στην καλιφόρνια, μπορεί να συγκεντρώνει εντυπωσιακούς αριθμούς αλλά καμιά σχέση γιατί και τα δρώντα υποκείμενα είναι τελείως διαφορετικά, απλά αυτό
Ποιος να το περιμενε αυτο απο τους καλιφορνεζους. Αμα δε μπορουνε να το δεχτουνε εκει φαντασου ποτε θα γινει στην Ελλαδιτσα μας.
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