Supporting the gays
Today, the California Supreme Court made a decision that, well, seemingly made no sense. I was actually expecting the hateful Proposition 8 to be overturned, to be honest. A small inkling of hope amid my typically cynical perspective… alas, I should have maintained my cynicism.
And so, I stalked Twitter, checking out the trends for #prop8 and #rejectprop8 which ranged from irate to inspiring. And the, of course, the random person who seems to feel that allowing all couples to marry somehow affects those who already can…
I had already heard, thanks to the local newspaper, the Press Telegram, that Long Beach would either be having a celebration march or a protest so after the decision was posted, I emailed the girls (my roommates – who consist of one of my best friends and my sister) and asked if they wanted to head down after work. Of course they did!
The March
At 7pm, we walked down to Broadway and started heading toward the street where it was set to start, figuring we’d just watch. You can’t really just watch, though.
We stood and cheered them along, shedding a tear or ten every so often. Families. Kids with straight parents, kids with gay parents. Couples. Single people. All different sizes, colors, ages, and genders (is it any wonder the gay community is represented by a rainbow flag?). There were churches there too, notably, St. Luke’s Episcopal and Refiner’s Fire United Church of Christ (the latter of whom passed out some blue wristbands!). My roommate also recognized a few people from her Catholic church, St. Matthew’s.
The Flags
We joined in at the tail, happy to add to the already impressive mass of people walking and support all those ahead of us in their cause. It’s always important to me to stay back a bit so as not to interfere with a pride that doesn’t belong to me. This was their moment to be angry and proud. Their moment to inspire each other to keep moving forward and continue fighting… and to let that pride and inspiration, in turn, inspire me.
My favorite sign of the night: “You haven’t won, you’ve inspired a movement that will overturn your hate.”
You Call This Threatening? Really?
Our experiences are necessarily different. I have the right to marry. I can read about Stonewall, I can read about Harvey Milk. But I can never fully understand what it’s like. And that’s okay. What I do understand is enough to make me feel hurt and angry for them so I certainly don’t mind stepping back a bit and letting them be proud of who they are, despite what the California state government wants them to feel.
I was proud to be at the Long Beach protest/rally/march today. I am proud to be a straight, single female supporting gay rights. And I will be proud when our nation as a whole gets rid of this Orwellian idea that we are all equal, but some are “more equal than others”.
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A few related links:
Edited: May 26th, 2009