Friday, November 14, 2008

Protest: Proposition 8

This does not relate to my own political views, of which I shall say nothing here. Rather, it concerns a protest that I went to see today. It's the first one I've heard of on campus, and its target, Proposition 8, is a subject that concerns many Californians, one way or another. (For historical reference: Proposition 8 amended California's constitution to bar homosexual marriages. It was passed 52%-48% in the 2008 elections.)

But enough background. I went to see the protest and also to accomplish certain minor, unrelated errands which were on route. I failed in the latter, but not in the former. Behold!


They were all gathered in a large circle, occasionally roused by a fellow with a microphone to shout and chant.


A lot of signs seemed recycled from before the elections - disappointing! Wasn't much in the way of slogans I hadn't seen already - "Stop the H8" and variants thereof, mostly. On the plus side, there was both a fellow with a "JESUS LOVES GAYS" sign and someone else with a "SECULAR NATION" sign. They were across the circle from each-other. Good thing; otherwise they might've burst into flames! That would've been no good.


Honestly, with all the chanting and such, it reminded me of a 'school spirit rally' more than an adult protest. Not sure what I was expecting, but... college is like that a lot, actually. More like high school than I expected. Not necessarily a bad thing.

There was a march scheduled for a half an hour later (it'll have started by the time this post goes up), but I missed it. Very sad.

So that's the story of the protest! Very exciting.

(Apology for low quality of photo-grams - cell-phone cameras, eh?)

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