Chicago’s GLBTs “A Day Without Gay” Protest

From Chicago Breaking News:

Supporters were asked to call in sick and not buy anything Wednesday in an attempt to demonstrate the gay community’s economic impact.

“We don’t have the same rights, and it’s unjust,” said Wright, 42, an Andersonville resident. “It’s just time [for change]. It’s really basic human rights.”

After picketing outside, the protesters dropped their signs and walked inside the county clerk’s offices, where about a half-dozen couples asked to apply for marriage licenses. Illinois law limits marriage to a man and a woman, and the couples were turned away.

“This country was based on religious freedom, safety from persecution of all kinds … and they’re taking all those rights from us,” said Aaron Palmer, 24, who sought a marriage license with his boyfriend, Willie Steele, 44, a database administrator who took the afternoon off.

Read the rest by clicking here.

Now’s Time for Gay Civil Rights Movement

Taking same-sex marriage into consideration, I still feel that we are wasting our time fighting at the state level when we need to be pressing forward for the next civil rights movement at the federal level.

In states such as Georgia, we are never going to mobilize enough voters to pass marriage-equality legislation, and, even if we did, it could be rescinded just like our friends in California just experienced. By moving forward at the federal level, we are securing our place in history and our equality for all of the generations to come.

At the Capitol rally, however, I experienced a sense of pride in my community. For the first time in a long time, my brothers and sisters showed up in mass to protest discrimination and advocate for equality and civil rights.

Later, we moved our activism and protests to Midtown. As I stood at the corner of 10th and Piedmont, I had a new realization. The last time I held a candle outside the local gay bookstore, we were all praying and waiting for Matthew Shepherd to recover from his severe and hateful beating.

Whatever happened after Matthew’s death? I remember the promise of hate crimes legislation and a spirit of unity within the community —- but it never came, and our spark smothered and eventually died.

Read the entire post at ajc.com!

Join The Impact - A National Success!

Gay rights supporters waving rainbow colors marched, chanted and danced in cities coast to coast Saturday to protest the vote that banned gay marriage in California as well as constitutional amendments in many stated to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.  They also used the demonstrations to urge supporters not to quit the fight for the right to marry.

Crowds gathered near public buildings in cities large and small, from Boston to San Francisco, Chicago to Los Angeles, and every city in between to vent their frustrations, celebrate gay relationships and renew calls for change, demanding equal rights for all tax paying citizens, including the GLBT community.

“Civil marriages are a civil right, and we’re going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens,” Karen Amico said in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading “Don’t Spread H8″.

“We are the American family, we live next door to you, we teach your children, we take care of your elderly,” said Heather Baker a special education teacher from Boston who addressed the crowd at Boston’s City Hall Plaza. “We need equal rights across the country.”

Join the impact was a nationwide success and has brought the human rights movement to the forefront of national issues.

This is not about “gay” rights.  This is about equal rights for all citizens in this country.  The time has come for the nation which was build and fairness and equality to live up to its founding beliefs.

Those in opposition to equal rights for all citizens have made claim the majority of people have voted against extending equal rights to all citizens, but as it’s been made clear, this mob mentality is not only wrong, it’s un-American!

Protest at Mormon Temple Not the Best Message

From The Hill’s Pundit’s Blog -By Ryan J. Davis

I’m a little scared of the anti-Mormon fervor that I’m seeing in the gay community. All over Facebook today the statues look like we’re planning a Night of the Long Knives at the Mormon Temple in NYC at 6:30. Seriously guys, cut it out. I know you’re angry. I know you need some way to express that anger, but the Mormon Temple in NYC makes no more sense than your grandparents’ retirement community in Sacramento or The Apollo Theater in Harlem. Can’t we be better than this?

While thousands and thousands of protesters gather outside the Mormon Temple, invoking scenes of Fred Phelps, we’ll still be left with a simple fact: We were out-organized and out-fundraised in California. That’s why we lost. It’s great to see all these voices speaking out about Prop. 8 now that it’s too late to do anything about it. Where were these people weeks ago when the Equality Groups were on their knees begging for money? We knew we were being out-fundraised for weeks and I rarely got a message about it. I’ve been contacted about 30 times regarding this single protest.

This protest will just confirm the Mormons’ fears about us and will certainly be portrayed negatively in the media. It’s old, divisive politics. Politics I’d like to put behind us and had hoped we could after Obama’s historic victory.

Now, I’m not defending the Mormons. I’ve been speaking out against them since before it became trendy and there are ways we can express our anger without another Kristallnacht. You can avoid staying at the Marriott and make jokes about polygamy.

But in the end, it wasn’t the Mormons that passed Prop. 8 in California, so your nights spent suffering at Holiday Inns will be in vain. It was the people of California who voted to put bigotry on their law books and it’s shameful. So let’s educate them. Outreach, not Anger. We have to actually spend time on this; we can’t solve it screaming for two hours at people walking into a church.

I’m ready for the fight, as long as I don’t have to become a crazy fundamentalist monster to be part of it.

Gay Marriage Protest Heating Up!

When will they give up? Here is footage of a bible-beater showing up to a No on 8 Rally carrying a big cross, and guess what…she’s not too well received! The media is having a field day with this one! Didn’t someone tell this right-wing nut to stay home? (watch the entire video)

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