On Protests

Nov 10, 2008 10:03

After a weekend of protests, I have to really buckle down to work on my homework today...

Friday's protest and yesterday's rally were hugely successful with thousands of people showing up for both. The biggest problem with Friday night's march: Improper Media Coverage. Having now attended several of the protests, and getting a feel for how many people were present, the numbers being reported are off considerably, and I don't know why.

Wednesday's candlelight vigil at City Hall was reported to have 2,000 participants, and I feel that was about right. There were a lot of us, but we only took up about 1/2 city block and the surrounding steps to the City Hall. Friday night's protest, however, was reported as having "about a thousand" people - which is grossly underestimated in comparison. There were at least 5 times as many people in the march on Friday as there were Wednesday night, but all of the media is reporting that San Diego's march was by far the largest in the state. That may very well still be true, but they're basing it on a faulty number count from the one we had here.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's not because I think this is a contest of how many people we can get out there versus other people: each event is equally important. The problem is that the average person only hears about these events through the media, unless they are somehow affected firsthand because of them, and we're in a day where we have to rely on the media to disseminate the proper information about our struggles for others to recognize the scope of what we are doing. And Friday night, the media failed us.

This doesn't mean the protests will end, or that our cause is undermined. It just means we may have to work a bit harder to share our cause. And that is something everyone can do. A speaker yesterday made a good point: Even if we had defeated proposition 8, we still would have had millions and millions of Californians that had voted for it. So while we're close and we're going to fight for equality now, the fight to open peoples' minds and show them what we're fighting for is something we would be needing to do regardless of Prop 8's outcome. We need a dialogue that explains that this is more than just an attempt to get marriage licenses or file taxes jointly, that it's about protecting the minority from the majority, it's about being an equal citizen, and its about protecting our State Constitution from a precedent that could subsequently be used against other minorities' rights in the future.

For those around/interested, there is a march/rally in San Francisco tomorrow from the Panhandle to SF City Hall at 5pm, and next Saturday, there is a nationwide protest at local City Halls around the state and the country.

Here are details for that:
Protest for Equality - Join The Impact! Statewide, Nationwide!
On the steps of your local City Hall - Saturday 11/15 at 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST
Our community WILL take to the streets and speak out against Proposition 8.
Check this site for nationwide listings: http://www. jointheimpact. com/

And for anyone who is curious/interested in the upcoming rallies around, including some outside of California, check this myspace page, which is devoted to finding out about and keeping an updated list of all protests and they are happening:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=406673131&MyToken=de1bec4d-1c85-4303-8824-9c6d7f5d23b5
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