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My First Political Rally And March


ejaycat

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Yesterday, Nov. 15, 2008, I went to my first political rally and march. It was awesome! Of course I voted no on Prop 8 (defines marriage as between one man and one woman)... but it was great to see so many supporters of gay marriage on the march, even straight couples pushing their babies in strollers. And honestly, I was hoping for some hotties... but I think maybe the majority of them must've been at the beach or something. It was a good day to go to the beach this weekend, LA temps being in the low 90s.

My partner and I waited for the rally to begin, and stayed through all the speeches; Rikki Lake even spoke... so random. We then started marching, and marched most of the way and were actually up front at one point, but then we decided to stop when we reached a certain point and just watched the rest of the people march. Then, since it was in the area and we were hungry, we walked to Little Tokyo for some good Japanese food.

This is more or less a chronological photo log of my Saturday, from beginning to end of rally/march.

Part of the historic center of my town, South Pasadena, California, as seen from the light rail station. The oldest commercial buildings of my town are here, many from the 1880s... yeah I know, but hey, for SoCal, that's old. The red brick building contains Buster's, a very popular independent coffee house that all the locals go to.

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The Mission Street light rail station in my town.

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And now, downtown Los Angeles...

Haters.

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After I saw the haters, I saw only supporters...

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This guy was really into himself... I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about.

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A bit of explanation for this sign; on the ballot for the election, there was another California proposition that supported the more humane treatment of animals being raised for food. It passed, but gay marriage did not. Apparently the voters cared more for chickens than they did for gay people.

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Annoying guy on his phone. He kept telling the person he was talking to where at the intersection he was, but giving wrong directions. I'm amazed at how many people don't know north from south or east from west. We were at the southwest corner of Spring and 1st, but he kept telling his friend or whomever that it was the northeast corner. I wasn't going to correct him.

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Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles.

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Someone had unfurled a rainbow flag on the top of the Los Angeles City Hall. It was only up for about 5 minutes and then it was taken down.

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I thought this was funny.

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The march starts!

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Here we got ahead of the marchers, and I took the opportunity to take this pic... hehe 10 years ago, you didn't even want to DRIVE through this part of downtown LA during the daytime, it was so run-down and full of homeless and drug addicts. Now it's all full of restaurants and apartment and loft dwellers.

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More marching.

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A few people looking out their apartment windows seeing what all the fuss is about.

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I thought the guy in the center of the pic was kind of cute.

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At this point my partner and I stopped marching. We just stood and watched more marchers pass by...

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I just had to get one beefcake shot in there...

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...and this shot of a signpost listing LA's sister cities and how far they are from this point.

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A blurry pic of 3 LAPD policemen... I wish I had retaken the photo. I swear the middle one and the one on the right were totally trying to make themselves look more sexy when they saw I was taking their picture. They somehow made their packages look bigger. ;-)

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Did you and your partner get hitched prior to the vote?

P.S. - where are you in relation to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena? That is not the rail stop I got off when I went.

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I spent the past week in California and have a couple of questions about Prop 8.

1 - What was the question on the ballot?

2 - What happens to those marriages honoured before Nov 4?

3 - Was there as much political action before the vote as there is now after the vote?

I'm really not all that surprised that the proposition passed and gay marriage failed. Generally, I think the larger population is against gay marriage, at least before it comes into being. They don't understand or think it will affect them. That was the case in Canada. It took court and legislative action to make it happen here. But if it was made a referendum question, it would have failed, based on most polling results. Now that it is done and dealt with, I no longer see it as an issue here - only religious fanatics go on about it, yet 4 or 5 years later, there have been no thunder bolts thrown at Parliament, the Supreme Court, or Jean Chretien.

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I spent the past week in California and have a couple of questions about Prop 8.

1 - What was the question on the ballot?

2 - What happens to those marriages honoured before Nov 4?

3 - Was there as much political action before the vote as there is now after the vote?

I'm really not all that surprised that the proposition passed and gay marriage failed. Generally, I think the larger population is against gay marriage, at least before it comes into being. They don't understand or think it will affect them. That was the case in Canada. It took court and legislative action to make it happen here. But if it was made a referendum question, it would have failed, based on most polling results. Now that it is done and dealt with, I no longer see it as an issue here - only religious fanatics go on about it, yet 4 or 5 years later, there have been no thunder bolts thrown at Parliament, the Supreme Court, or Jean Chretien.

Yea, like abortion, people are just flogging a dead horse.

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And here's the thing: they can all still get married in Massachusetts & Connecticut. I mean gay people came from all over the US to be wed in SF under goo-haired Nuisance. So if it's no longer available in CA, why can't west coasters fly to Boston and reciprocate? I hear there are bargain fares on JetBlue. Since when was HAVING TO GET MARRIED in CAlifornia the Ultimate? People have been getting married and divorced in Nevada for years, what's the attraction of California? LA84 hates it here. I mean... it's all so simple w/o all the histrionic drama. :rolleyes:

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i'm kind of surprised how many people were there.

did you see any other celebrities around?

Not marching. And only a few other C-list "celebs" spoke... apart from Rikki Lake, there was Lucy Lawless, another actress who played Traci Turnblad on the stage production of "Hairspray," and one of the black actors on that Logo network all black gay show, who is also gay in real life.

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Did you and your partner get hitched prior to the vote?

P.S. - where are you in relation to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena? That is not the rail stop I got off when I went.

No we did not... though we've been entertaining the idea of getting married for years now. We even have an idea where we'd like to hold the ceremony and reception... nothing pretentious, no stupid wedding at a winery for us.

And if you took the Gold Line from Union Station to the Rose Bowl, I assume you got off at Memorial Park Station or Del Mar Station, both of those being in Old Town Pasadena. You would have passed through the Mission Station in South Pasadena on your way north, though. Yeah, taking the train to downtown LA is so convenient and we don't live far from the station. In fact for the rally Saturday, everyone was encouraged to take the trains downtown because obviously the traffic and parking would be a nightmare.

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I spent the past week in California and have a couple of questions about Prop 8.

1 - What was the question on the ballot?

2 - What happens to those marriages honoured before Nov 4?

3 - Was there as much political action before the vote as there is now after the vote?

I'm really not all that surprised that the proposition passed and gay marriage failed. Generally, I think the larger population is against gay marriage, at least before it comes into being. They don't understand or think it will affect them. That was the case in Canada. It took court and legislative action to make it happen here. But if it was made a referendum question, it would have failed, based on most polling results. Now that it is done and dealt with, I no longer see it as an issue here - only religious fanatics go on about it, yet 4 or 5 years later, there have been no thunder bolts thrown at Parliament, the Supreme Court, or Jean Chretien.

Where in California did you stay?

Answer to your question #1, here's exactly how it was worded on the ballot: Proposition 8

To your #2 question, I'm not sure. I've heard some people say that it would stay legal, but I'm not really sure.

To your #3 question, the ads didn't really proliferate until about a month before the election. Prior to that, you really didn't see much fuss about it. The majority in my area did not support it, there were many "No on 8" signs on people's lawns, as well as "Obama" signs. I'm glad I live in a liberal part of the San Gabriel Valley. I do now recall that there were polls months before the election and a majority of people did support gay marriage, but then the closer the election got, the polls showed that those who opposed gay marriage started taking a slight lead. I wouldn't doubt it was due to the political ads that were spreading LIES that the pro-Prop 8 people were sending out; the ads said things like churches would lose their tax-free status and that children in schools would be required to learn about gay marriage, both of which WERE ENTIRELY UNTRUE. But you know how American voters are; many of them vote according to the political ads they see. When I vote, I ignore those political mailers and TV ads. I look at the issues and vote according to what I feel makes sense.

We'll see what happens. This, after all, is the first time EVER that the civil rights of a minority group were actually TAKEN AWAY by a ballot measure. Lawsuits are already being filed, who knows, the California Supreme Court may rule this as unconstitutional yet again, and hopefully it won't be put to a vote again, because HELLO, it would be unconstitutional.

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And here's the thing: they can all still get married in Massachusetts & Connecticut. I mean gay people came from all over the US to be wed in SF under goo-haired Nuisance. So if it's no longer available in CA, why can't west coasters fly to Boston and reciprocate? I hear there are bargain fares on JetBlue. Since when was HAVING TO GET MARRIED in CAlifornia the Ultimate? People have been getting married and divorced in Nevada for years, what's the attraction of California? LA84 hates it here. I mean... it's all so simple w/o all the histrionic drama. :rolleyes:

To me this just brings up the point that this needs to be made a federal-level issue, it has to be the law of the entire nation, it shouldn't be left up to the states. Sometimes I really hate this "states' rights" bullshit. This is why we don't have a federal/national standard for education or even what method to use when voting, among various other things.

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Well, when I was investigating the whole marriage issue with my partner earlier this year, Scotland and Canada were really the only options for me without residency. California became an option, but only after we'd already planned our Highlands Nuptials. Going to SF would have been easier, though, and if we'd known sooner we might have tried that. Lucky we didn't though _ I guess that would leave our whole partnership/marriage status in limbo.

Oz is like the USA _ it's being left up to the individual states, and none of them endorse full same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships is our closest registration. And NSW, where I live, doesn't even have that (and those States that do, Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT, also require residency). Hence our decision for a Highland Fling!

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No we did not... though we've been entertaining the idea of getting married for years now. We even have an idea where we'd like to hold the ceremony and reception... nothing pretentious, no stupid wedding at a winery for us.

And if you took the Gold Line from Union Station to the Rose Bowl, I assume you got off at Memorial Park Station or Del Mar Station, both of those being in Old Town Pasadena. You would have passed through the Mission Station in South Pasadena on your way north, though. Yeah, taking the train to downtown LA is so convenient and we don't live far from the station. In fact for the rally Saturday, everyone was encouraged to take the trains downtown because obviously the traffic and parking would be a nightmare.

*Ugh* I just went to a straight wedding at a winery last Friday. So overrated.

I think it was Memorial Park. We got tired of waiting for Shuttle Buses to the Rose Bowl so we just walked over. Sort of an underground yet open station?

I have no idea what I caught back to L.A. It was the Gold Line - that is all I know ( a few too many beers drowning my sorrows you know :( )

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*Ugh* I just went to a straight wedding at a winery last Friday. So overrated.

I think it was Memorial Park. We got tired of waiting for Shuttle Buses to the Rose Bowl so we just walked over. Sort of an underground yet open station?

I have no idea what I caught back to L.A. It was the Gold Line - that is all I know ( a few too many beers drowning my sorrows you know :( )

Yeah, that would be Memorial Park, exactly how you described it, an underground yet open station.

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Who decides what legislation will be voted on in these ballots? Was it passed by the California State Senate?

Obviously, for it to become law, it needs voters approval??

Just trying to understand why this couldn't have been made law without the need for a vote.

I would have been happy, if i was a resident of CA, to allowed the former law of same sex marriage to go on, but if I had been allowed to vote, i'd have voted yes on prop 8.

My question is, why was it even brought to a ballot in the first place. I am sure a lot of people wouldn't have cared to keep the status quo without a vote, but given the chance to vote it down, inevitably they would.

I mean, there is many laws I disagree with here in France too, but because we sometimes don't get the opportunity to vote on them individually, it fades into the background. The law takes shape, people go on with their lives. But given the chance to vote, people will inevitably vote a law down, even if they slightly dislike it.

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Who decides what legislation will be voted on in these ballots?

Michelle, here's the link to part of the Calif constitution: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_2

How does an initiative get on the ballot? If you can get 100,000 legitimate signatures, then your issue (if not TOO FRIVOLOUS) can get on the ballot.

The CA Supreme Court has now decided to weigh in on the matter in March. The NO forces contend that Prop 8 is a 'revision' to the existing constitution -- therefore cannot be valid until ratified by 2/3rds of the Calif Legislature or a new constitutional convention. YES says it is an Amendment which, per the state constitution, immediately takes effect on its passing -- Nov 5th. Article I of the CA constitution deals with rights http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_1 . If I read it right, it says NOTHING about 'marriage between any genders.. or even species' :D (I think I only caught a reference to property rights during marriage) -- therefore, in my amateur analysis -- should be AN AMENDMENT. I don't see it as a REVISION (yeah...it's all stupid 'semantics') because the formula to a valid CA marriage is NOT really spelled out.

Now the issue of all the extant marriages is a 3rd issue which the CA justices will have to decide separately.

We will know as early as March '09.

Sorry about the earlier reply. Couldn't pass it up. ;)

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The California Supreme Court ruling against a ballot initiative or Proposition that the voters passed is not unprecedented. In the 1960s, voters actually approved a measure that would have allowed racial discrimination in housing, but the CA Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional. And in the 1990s, Prop 187, which would have denied non-emergency healthcare and public schooling for illegal immigrants, though the voters said yes, the CA Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional.

Also, per the California Constitution, I don't know the exact wording, but it's unconstitutional to create an amendment that would discriminate against a minority group. There's also something called equal protection. AND, the earlier ruling by the CA Supreme Court in May said it was a RIGHT for same-sex couples to marry, and after that ruling, that right was granted... so Prop 8 is clearly a discriminatory measure, and that would make it unconstitutional.

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