Video from yesterday's protest march

Prop 8 Protest March

Goodness, YouTube can take for-freakin'-ever to load and process HD video!

So, anyhow, I edited this quickly last night after I got home about 11:30. Then it took four hours this morning to upload the file to YouTube, and another couple of hours for the video to be processed into an HD version.

Three things I want to point out in the video:

(1) around 45 seconds into the video, please notice the numbers of police guarding the entrances to the State Building. I assume this is in response to the AB101 riots of 1991. Then-governor Pete Wilson had promised to sign the state gay rights bill (AB101) when he returned to his office. When he got there, he changed his mind at the last minute and vetoed it. People in San Francisco went to the old State Building to protest this flagrant betrayal, and it turned nasty -- windows were broken, and an office was set on fire. So one cannot blame them for guarding this building. Still, it reminded me a little bit of the riot police that were running around at the US Supreme Court in 1988 at the Bowers v Hardwick protest. That was a memorable protest.

(2) At about 3:20, that's Marga Gomez, the only celebrity I saw that far back in the march.

(3) The band brought up the rear of the march. Unfortunately, this means that you can't get a real idea of exactly how many people were in front of us. Chip ran ahead and got shots of some of the crowd, but the full march was at least two or three city blocks long.

Here are my notes from the event:

First, we were not able to attend either of the rallies (neither the one at City Hall nor the one at Yerba Buena Gardens). At City Hall, we were gathering and preparing to march to Yerba Buena. Then when the march got to Yerba Buena, we all had to leave immediately for (surprise!) regular Tuesday night band practice. That's why the video is only of the march from Civic Center to YBG.

The band did a good job of not engaging. Toward the end, someone shouted very angrily at us, "Why are you celebrating!" My own answer would be that we're not celebrating. But at the same time we're not rending our garments, moaning laments and acting like victims. For thirty years, the band has always come out with "California, Here I Come" and "San Francisco." We have even been known to play "This Is My Country." We're laying our claim, asserting our presence and the fact that we're not going to hide.

Marching at the rear of a march like this is kind of like having to sit at the back of the F-Market -- all the crazies gather there. And they want to talk to you. A lot.

On our way out, we went to Powell Street Station. There was a man (I'm not entirely convinced that he wasn't at least a little bit drunk) standing near the MUNI gates and yelling, "Yes on 8! The will of the people has been done! Deal with it!" and similar guaranteed crowd pleasing remarks. Everyone (ourselves included) gave him a wide berth, again, not engaging him. But I heard a lot of people muttering their responses to themselves out of his hearing.

So I was relieved that the protest was so peaceful. Last week, a couple of people posted things about police barriers being dropped off in the Castro as a sign that the police knew that the decision was coming. A lot of people reacted to these postings by assuming that this meant that the police actually knew the content of the decision and were assuming there would be riots. It reached a point where a few of these people almost seemed to hope that there would be riots. I didn't ever buy into this. First, if the police knew the nature of the decision, it would have leaked. I saw notes on Facebook that clearly indicated that the police had tipped off various groups that the decision was coming. If they'd known what the decision was, they'd have said that as well. Further, the same group that planned the Prop 8 protests last fall have been planning the "Day of Decision" rallies ever since the CA Supreme Court took up the case -- if the court upheld Prop 8, it would be a protest, and if they reversed it, it would be a celebration, so there would be some massive event in all cases. For the police to put out barriers only indicated to me that (a) they knew that the decision was coming and (b) they were just preparing to block traffic so people could have the streets. But enough people kept pushing for riots that I wasn't sure that people would keep cool heads, so I wasn't entirely convinced that at least some people wouldn't try to instigate some kind of violence.

In the end, happily, people kept their heads (to the extent one could hope, given the circumstances), no violence broke out that I witnessed, and the police barriers were used (as I had guessed) to block Market Street when a late impromptu march started from Castro to Civic Center. And when they changed their minds and went back to Castro Street, the police moved the barriers to stop traffic from going down Castro Street so the protestors could gather in the middle of the road.

Mourning View: Castro & Market

With apologies to Joe.My.God. for stealing his "Morning View" designation.

What about Gay Marriage?

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

I can't really comment on this one. It speaks for itself.

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

An all-star cast, featuring Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, Marc Shaiman, Margaret Cho, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Barrett Foa, Nicole Parker, John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Kathy Najimy, Rashida Jones, Sarah Chalke, and many many more. Written by Marc Shaiman. Directed and staged by Adam Shankman.

Marriage protest rally

We're just back from the protest at City Hall. It was a balmy morning -- mid to high 70's (it's 76 in our back yard right now), with nothing to be seen in the sky except a couple of news helicopters.

The band (the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band) gathered to play music before the rally ("California Here I Come," "San Francisco," "Wedding March/Chapel Of Love" medley, that kind of stuff). For some reason, they escorted the band into the secured area, just outside of the area reserved for media, seniors and disabled.

So for about the first hour, I had a prime spot for taking pictures of the people speaking, (up to the point where Mark Leno started speaking). We had to shift around so they could enlarge the area for seniors and disabled, so I couldn't see anymore after that. Then they turned the speaker away from the steps so the sound would carry farther down Polk Street.

That was just that little bit too much. I mean, the sound system was loud enough as it was, but having it pointed directly at us was just deafening and intolerable. And just as they turned the speaker, the sprinklers came on and started drenching everyone's feet (and my trombone, and my jacket, and Phil's trombone, and the bass drum....). So we pushed through the crowd back down the sidewalk to the corner of Polk and Grove, where we played music for another fifteen minutes or so and then came home.

I think Penny Nixon might have been one of the better speakers that I heard. If you don't know of Penny Nixon, she used to be the pastor of the MCC in the Castro until it closed a few years ago. She and her partner have a daughter that she spoke of a great deal, describing how she took her daughter with her to vote, and how she hasn't yet found the right way to explain to the six-year-old what Prop 8 is or why it passed. But her strongest point was her affirmation that she's staying in the church to prove that being gay and being religious don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Not that any form of organized religion is anything that I would choose for myself, but I applaud her for standing firmly for what she believes in and for her hope and optimism.

As always, Tom Ammiano was both funny and rousing, in turn.

I have to say that the day was surprisingly similar to the filming of the post-parade rally for "Milk." The rally was in the same spot (though there was no stage this time), the crowd seemed of a similar size, though today's crowd was probably larger today -- they stretched about as far from the left of the stage to the right of the stage, but the crowd today could stretch farther back. The band was standing (and I was standing) in almost exactly the same spot. It really was quite a deja vu moment -- the only thing missing was Sean Penn.

So, anyway, I had to get up early to make it in time. I've been sick for the last week and a half, and I'm still getting over it. I'm tired, but I can't go back to bed because I've got to go to work now. At least one of the news helicopters made a couple of passes over the Castro, just to check that no one's rioting, I suppose.

I tell you, I really don't want choppers over Castro to become the rule and not the exception. They've been here (1) Halloween, (2) election night, (3) the night of the march into Dolores Park, and (4) today. So that makes four times in two weeks. As I said before, if I wanted to listen to helicopters all the time, I'd move to Los Angeles.

(Note: All photos are 936X1248. Click to enlarge.)

Apologies

You might have noticed that I haven't said "boo" about Wednesday's candlelight vigil at City Hall or last night's march from Civic Center to Dolores Park.

Unfortunately, I've got some exceedingly severe work deadlines next week -- more than usual -- plus I've had a sinus infection and cough all week.

And those two things just exacerbate each other -- I can't afford to take time off work to self-medicate and get over this faster, and working while being sick just generally seems to take longer than usual. It has only been in the last couple of nights that I have actually slept all the way through the night without waking up every two hours from coughing.

We went out onto Castro Street for about an hour Tuesday night, and that turned out to be too long, and I was fairly miserable at work the next day because of it. So I skipped the other two events in hopes of not extending this illness any longer than I need to.

I left work at 6:30 last night, so as I was walking up 18th Street, I was passing crowds of people leaving Dolores Park. In our apartment, I could hear crowd noises coming from the park, and I could hear them much better when I opened a window.

At this point, I have to say that I want to see some clear, centralized organization, though. I have been completely swamped with groups and causes on Facebook -- "1,000,000 Million Strong Against Newly Passed Prop 8," "Proud American, Disappointed Californian," "Californians Ready to Repeal Prop. 8," "Make Pride a Protest March Again," "Restore Equality to California in 2010" and on and on and on and on and on. So I hope that a clear and organized response starts to emerge soon.

I am aware that three lawsuits have been filed to stop the enactment of Prop 8. I hope that they work. But those things happen out of sight, and people want to see something right this minute that says they shouldn't lose hope. So would someone please, please, please come up with something more unified than the scattershot responses I've seen so far?

On the plus side, I'm very proud that there has been no rioting or destruction of property in response to Prop 8. Not that I'm against such things on principle. Rather, I feel that since the overwhelming majority of San Francisco and the Bay Area voted "No" on 8, to get destructive here would be reaching out to hurt our friends and would achieve nothing constructive.

Half mast

The flag is wrapped around the pole and, therefore, not waving in the breeze. But the giant Pride flag at Castro and Market is flying at half mast this morning.

"No on 8" sent out this message this morning:

"Roughly 400,000 votes separate yes from no on Prop 8 – out of 10 million votes tallied.

"Based on turnout estimates reported yesterday, we expect that there are more than 3 million and possibly as many as 4 million absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

"Given that fundamental rights are at stake, we must wait to hear from the Secretary of State tomorrow how many votes are yet to be counted as well as where they are from.

"It is clearly a very close election and we monitored the results all evening and this morning.

"As of this point, the election is too close to call.

"Because Prop 8 involves the sensitive matter of individual rights, we believe it is important to wait until we receive further information about the outcome.".

Prop 8 on the Daily Show

I kind of wish some of these things had been said on national TV before now.

But at least they got said before election day.

"Yes on 8" parody

YouTube

Courtesy of World O' Jeff.

I try not to dip into politics too often here simply because political discourse often would violate my "Nothing Serious" policy.

But this parody of the "Yes on Prop 8" propaganda commercial hits the target pretty squarely while still allowing me to maintain the "Nothing Serious" promise.

But, seriously, this video needs as much exposure as it can get. Spread it far and wide.