I went to the post-announcement Prop 8 protests on Tuesday.
It was moving. I got there for the second round, later in the day, as they were marching from City Hall to Yerba Buena Gardens (the one next to the Metereon). I walked in from the very start, and watched and took photos as people went around me, until I couldn't see the beginning anymore. I still couldn't see the end though. I started walking with them. I did this a few times.
Only when I started waiting for Des, (condordes on here? deskitty on here? yes, i'm actually meeting *locals* through kde now, wow) at the entrance to the park did I finally get to see the end.
We skirted the crowd, ran into funcrunch, and then walked up on top of the waterfall statue thing. There were nice speeches, there was music, etc. The signs were fun to read. At one point at very very very loud dance music truck pulled up to the side. We ignored it until *tweet* the twitter feed I'd been following (stop8dotorg?) explained that it was something sponsored by the keepalive-late-night group, and that a bunch of people followed it back down Market. Twitter was on at least a 5-10 min delay, so by the time we got an explanation, it was quite gone. And we were starting to get bored at this rally, so decided to go see what was happening with the music-truck-thing. *tweet* Something about traffic blockage and police at 7th. Except it turned out to be unrelated: a muni bus ran into something (or vice versa) and the entire street was blocked off. Did I mention that inexplicably enough Des and I decided to walk all the way from 4th to the Castro? like... 18th???
We were a little tired... ;) *tweet* *tweet* *useless but tantalizing info*
Getting closer... Around 14th we ran into a group that was going back towards downtown. WTF? The person I grabbed gleefully explained that there were still people in the Castro, and that they were "going back downtown and everywhere!" We kept going.
Started hearing loud dance music... Got to Market and Castro to find the block between Market & 18th was closed off. There was dancing. It really was a mini street party. With speeches every so often that had dance music in the background.
A Different Light bookstore was open so I went in. I ended up with two books. Review follows below. Quote of the day: "I'm so mad about it I'm going to play Madonna." from one of the bookstore workers. Bookstores rock. I should be in them more often. I connected the most here. They closed and we continued off to cap off the night with a snack (mmm cheese on hash browns) at Sparky's. Thus ended a day/night of protest. I was left with very sore feet.
I'm not entirely sure what I made of all this, but I'm glad I saw it. I'm not sure I entirely felt like an active participant, even if I did march. Detached observer.
I ended up with two books:
One called "Wild Animals I have known: Polk Street Diaries and After" by Kevin Bentley. A sort of interesting read of the gay paradise of the 1977++ in San Francisco. It's written as a journal, and there is random sex or mention of it on every page, and usually some kind of drug as well. At least for the first half. Eventually he starts falling into real relationships, and some of that fades away. At some point I realized he was randomly tossing in literary references. From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. It was mostly subtle enough that I'm not sure how many I missed. In some things I'm not as well read as I'd like to be...
Of course AIDS comes partway through, the timeline jumps several years in places. It's handled almost dispassionately, non-politically, and non-clinically. Only his lovers dying give any indication of it.
The other is a German phrase book for gayboys to cruise with. hee hee.
Only when I started waiting for Des, (condordes on here? deskitty on here? yes, i'm actually meeting *locals* through kde now, wow) at the entrance to the park did I finally get to see the end.
We skirted the crowd, ran into funcrunch, and then walked up on top of the waterfall statue thing. There were nice speeches, there was music, etc. The signs were fun to read. At one point at very very very loud dance music truck pulled up to the side. We ignored it until *tweet* the twitter feed I'd been following (stop8dotorg?) explained that it was something sponsored by the keepalive-late-night group, and that a bunch of people followed it back down Market. Twitter was on at least a 5-10 min delay, so by the time we got an explanation, it was quite gone. And we were starting to get bored at this rally, so decided to go see what was happening with the music-truck-thing. *tweet* Something about traffic blockage and police at 7th. Except it turned out to be unrelated: a muni bus ran into something (or vice versa) and the entire street was blocked off. Did I mention that inexplicably enough Des and I decided to walk all the way from 4th to the Castro? like... 18th???
We were a little tired... ;) *tweet* *tweet* *useless but tantalizing info*
Getting closer... Around 14th we ran into a group that was going back towards downtown. WTF? The person I grabbed gleefully explained that there were still people in the Castro, and that they were "going back downtown and everywhere!" We kept going.
Started hearing loud dance music... Got to Market and Castro to find the block between Market & 18th was closed off. There was dancing. It really was a mini street party. With speeches every so often that had dance music in the background.
A Different Light bookstore was open so I went in. I ended up with two books. Review follows below. Quote of the day: "I'm so mad about it I'm going to play Madonna." from one of the bookstore workers. Bookstores rock. I should be in them more often. I connected the most here. They closed and we continued off to cap off the night with a snack (mmm cheese on hash browns) at Sparky's. Thus ended a day/night of protest. I was left with very sore feet.
I'm not entirely sure what I made of all this, but I'm glad I saw it. I'm not sure I entirely felt like an active participant, even if I did march. Detached observer.
I ended up with two books:
One called "Wild Animals I have known: Polk Street Diaries and After" by Kevin Bentley. A sort of interesting read of the gay paradise of the 1977++ in San Francisco. It's written as a journal, and there is random sex or mention of it on every page, and usually some kind of drug as well. At least for the first half. Eventually he starts falling into real relationships, and some of that fades away. At some point I realized he was randomly tossing in literary references. From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. It was mostly subtle enough that I'm not sure how many I missed. In some things I'm not as well read as I'd like to be...
Of course AIDS comes partway through, the timeline jumps several years in places. It's handled almost dispassionately, non-politically, and non-clinically. Only his lovers dying give any indication of it.
The other is a German phrase book for gayboys to cruise with. hee hee.