After the boys' karate this morning we headed out to the local pro-marriage equality rally (I think they're weekly now :-)).
Again, it does my heart so much good to be around such support. I mean that both figurativly and literally; I can feel my pulse rate slow and the stress of protecting my family in this climate fall off in the optimism that I can find in all those many friendly faces.One thing that is kind of amusing and disturbing is the difference in tone from what's being portrayed by those against our marriages. The angriest face I saw there (well, on our side) was this one:
And that's just Brian's pretend angry face (and yes, he's carrying a remote control; he likes to pause and rewind me sometimes).Everyone was in a great mood and there were a lot of conciliatory and respectful words said with regards to the LDS church and others. I think the community as a whole is quite confused as to how they could think we want to alter their temple ceremonies, or take their rights, and such, and I hope the message gets across the polarization that all we want is for our families to be treated in law the way they'd want their families to be treated.
And despite the hope of some on the other side to make this into a race issue, and pit minority against minority, every community in Utah was represented there from our Latino friends to the Dakota native American who gave the blessing. It was a very heart warming event, once again.
Of course, others there we're in a less than good mood:
But that wasn't more than just kind of strange. It's funny how the group calling us hateful can't see a couple yards from their face into the love of that crowd, and it's odd they're the same group calling us "ignorant fools" and going on about our torture in hell. It's also odd that a group would be telling us we shouldn't exercise our right to free speech and assembly, while mistakenly assuming they were defending a person's right to vote.We can vote, and we can speak. If there is a silver lining here, it certainly is the new strength we've found in each other.
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It's also odd that a group would be telling us we shouldn't exorcise our right to free speech and assembly
While they try to exorcise the evil influence that possesses us, we exercise our right to free speech.
:)
I'm glad that the rally went well, and wish that we could have been there.
I know people think that this is a freedom of religion thing. I had a friend today tell me that she was against proposition 8 until she started to do some research and "realized" that churches would be forced to marry gay couples if they didn't want to go to jail. She quoted a case in Sweden - which ended up being actually a case of hate speech, not a gay marriage thing - and tried to say our country would do the same. It was very strange. I'm not sure how so many people can believe these things. I mean, who's getting arrested in Massachusetts? Who got arrested in CA since May? The argument is ridiculous.
Here at our rally in Chicago we didn't have as many people speaking about love as I would have hoped.
There were a number of veteran activists who spoke about how authority doesn't cede power without a demand. Another veteran activist who went kinda crazy about how the religious really want to kill all gays.
I think it really got good when we broke from the rally format and took to the streets chanting and waving flags.
I wrote the speech I would have liked to hear on my journal:
http://ophidimancer.livejournal.com/
"While they try to exorcise the evil influence that possesses us, we exercise our right to free speech."
Hey, how can exorcise mean both to get rid of and to use?
Amanda:
"She quoted a case in Sweden - which ended up being actually a case of hate speech, not a gay marriage thing - and tried to say our country would do the same."
AND, if it's the same case I'm thinking of, the guy was acquitted. AND, OMG, how is this temple still standing? :-)
All these people making "realizations" and doing "research", judging by their sources and their quality, seem to merely be looking for excuses, and it seems they don't need very good ones.
Ophidimancer:
"Another veteran activist who went kinda crazy about how the religious really want to kill all gays."
Eeew. You need to initiate a coup. I've much more likes to hear your speech.
Hey, does anyone around here know where to find the text from the speeches we heard in SLC? I thought they were all very nice.
"All these people making "realizations" and doing "research", judging by their sources and their quality, seem to merely be looking for excuses, and it seems they don't need very good ones."
That's exactly what I think. I told her we can't base our laws on what happens in other countries with different laws than us - I mean, for goodness sake, in parts of the middle east a woman can get the death penalty for premarital sex and other like "crimes" - but that doesn't mean it'll happen here.
Sean and I went, but it got really religious and jesusy, (and native-american blessingly) so we left.
Religion, whether Christian or not just turns me off at political events.
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