The rally was held at 3pm this Saturday afternoon on the steps of the State Capitol. It was 32 degrees but sunny and the wind was calm so not much of a windchill.

I’m not sure how many people were there, probably around 100. It was a smaller turnout than I had hoped for but I’m sure most people went to the one held in Minneapolis.

I don’t know who the people were speaking, if anyone does please let me know so I can label the pictures properly. People seemed encouraged. There were plenty of kids tossing a football on the lawn. I didn’t see any media coverage but again I assume they were all in Minneapolis. There were no hecklers or other nuts trying to discourage or throw insults our way. It was a very peaceful rally.

Please share your stories about the rallies held in your cities.

From Dan Savage’s column on The Stranger:

Black Homophobia

African American voters in California voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8, writing anti-gay discrimination into California’s constitution and banning same-sex marriage in that state. Seventy percent of African American voters approved Prop 8, according to exit polls, compared to 53% of Latino voters, 49% of white voters, 49% of Asian voters.

I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.

I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.

This will get my name scratched of the invite list of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is famous for its anti-racist-training seminars, but whatever.

Finally, I’m searching for some exit poll data from California. I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8.

I am not part of either of these inner circles. I’m not gay and I’m not black. I’m not even a democrat. I have, however, been on the outside of the gay community looking in for a long long time and I have noticed a few things that might explain the loss.

First and foremost most straight white Americans, unless they are close to someone who is gay or are Evangelicals probably don’t have a clue what Prop. 8 is all about. The gay community didn’t do much to reach out to them and what they did do was apparently watered down (polite) and ineffective. If white America doesn’t know what Prop. 8 is, it’s a good bet that black America doesn’t either. I’m not going to get into whether or not blacks are homophobic. I suspect some of them are and some of them aren’t. I have no idea if blacks are disproportionately more homophobic than whites or other ethnicities. It’s a bit hypocritical to paint all blacks as homophobic.

Gay activists are intimidating and practically militant. I do not feel welcome by most gay activists. I am tolerated but not really welcome. I have been a vocal supporter of gay rights for a while now, I have gotten involved. Yet when I read many of the gay activist blogs and websites I have to wade through numerous references to “bitches”, “cunts”, “whores” and a whole bunch of other horribly offensive descriptions of women. I feel much like Dan Savage does about blacks when I read some of these articles and posts, I feel disgusted and betrayed. And I feel like taking my ball and going home.

I’m not religious but I am republican. In the gay world, at least on these blogs and sites that are well known and widely read, republicans and Evangelicals are lumped together. I don’t know a lot of Evangelicals, I try to steer clear of them, but the ones I do know are not republicans. Most of the republicans I know, and I do know a lot of them, don’t go to church let alone speak in tongues. Lumping them together is offensive, stereotyping and hypocritical.

If gays want the same rights that straights have then it would help if the gay activists would reach out to straight America rather than ridicule them. The anger isn’t helping the cause. It scares people and when people are scared they try to protect themselves… I can’t believe I am going to say this but… they cling to their beliefs, no matter how wrong and uneducated they are.

But wait, why shouldn’t straight America reach out to gays? Because they aren’t. You want what they have and they are the ones in power. It isn’t right but it’s the truth. The world really isn’t any different than high school, its just there is more at stake. And the same jerks are in control, white suburban, blond cheerleaders. See, now I’m doing it.

I understand the anger and it is certainly well founded and understood but it isn’t helping. The comparisons to racial equality are appropriate. Barrack Obama would not have won the presidency if he wore his pants down around his knees, spoke unintelligible English and talked about how The Man had been keeping him down. The Man is keeping all of us down. Wouldn’t it make more sense to work together to achieve the equality we all desire?

California has passed a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage. Arizona and Florida also approved amendments banning gay marriage. To add insult to injury unmarried couples are now banned from adopting or fostering children. Supporters of the ban have stated that this was aimed at gay couples. I guess it’s better for children to sit in an institution than to be adopted by a loving couple.

I don’t understand how this could happen. Last night we elected our first African American president and yet we effectively tried to shove millions of people back in the closet. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw have given $100,000.00 to fight Proposition 8, they announced Monday.

“By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement said. “Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.”

Brad Pitt gave the same amount recently.