Way to go, GLBT community
Last night belladonna93 got stuck in a massive anti-prop-8-ruling protest on her way home. It took her more than an hour and a great deal of frustration and anxiety to work her way through blocked-off-streets, crowds of protesters, and jammed traffic. The same thing happened to me twice in the week following the passage of Proposition 8.
I'm all for civil disobedience and nonviolent protest. But may I point out that the communities where these protests have been happening -- Westwood, West Hollywood, and Hollywood -- are precisely the communities with the strongest support for (and largest population of) GLBT people in Southern California? I would be extremely surprised if more than 5% of those inconvenienced by these protests favored Proposition 8.
So what we had here was a bunch of protesters disrupting the lives of their own community members, and of their most ardent supporters, to protest a decision made by a small group of judges who live in and around Sacramento, 400 miles to the north. The net outcome for me was that I had a brief urge to support Proposition 8 just to avoid rewarding stupid and rude behavior. Is that really the PR result the community wants?
Some days I really don't get people at all.
I'm all for civil disobedience and nonviolent protest. But may I point out that the communities where these protests have been happening -- Westwood, West Hollywood, and Hollywood -- are precisely the communities with the strongest support for (and largest population of) GLBT people in Southern California? I would be extremely surprised if more than 5% of those inconvenienced by these protests favored Proposition 8.
So what we had here was a bunch of protesters disrupting the lives of their own community members, and of their most ardent supporters, to protest a decision made by a small group of judges who live in and around Sacramento, 400 miles to the north. The net outcome for me was that I had a brief urge to support Proposition 8 just to avoid rewarding stupid and rude behavior. Is that really the PR result the community wants?
Some days I really don't get people at all.