National Impact

The "Join the Impact" nationally synchronized protest rally was an enormous success. Friday night some of us stayed late after work to make signs. I found it strange and exhilarating that this was the first protest that I had been so invested in, and/or crafted signs.

As usual, Andy Towle and Joe My God have stellar reports, and have collected extensive galleries and videos of the nationwide rally for LGBT equal rights.

We were texting Keith in Nashville who was participating in the rally there. In the cold and rain. Very exciting!



This is it. The new Movement. We're pretty pissed, and we're not going to take it any more.

Here's a great view from Kristen Blackmore taken from the SFist gallery:

My camera is still out for repairs so I only have a few shots of the day taken with my janky old camera that only works intermittently. I took plenty using Shilpa's camera and we'll post those as soon as I get the SD card from her.

However, we're still gay. We are still the creators. And as such there were some wonderfully creative signs. (Click to embiggen.)
















There are plenty of good signs all over flickr. And I flove this one seen in NYC (via Andrew Sullivan/JoeMyGod)

So very gay!

The day was hot. Hotter than any day I can ever remember in SF. And no clouds. We were grateful for our protest signs as they offered shade. The 5,000 plus that showed up at City Hall were baking in the sun. It turns out the MC for the day was a friend from Sundance. We couldn't see the podium for the longest while, but I recognized the voice first.

Unfortunately, while the grass/net roots were so powerful in sparking and organizing this event, it was terrible at setting the agenda. The first 90 minutes featured inspiring speakers, but they should never have let the little boy sing. Some young 20-something wrote a protest song and wanted to sing it. The sound system was so inadequate to the event the first hour featured more chants of "Loud-er! Loud-er!" than civil right chants. Gadzooks this kid's voice was bad. Further maligned by the sound system, and the outright boringness of the song. People had already started to disband due to the heat and the interminable feeling generated by the litany of speakers-- some relevant and inspiring and some seeming more like placeholders or pity presentations.

One group I would learn later was lead through Chinatown, which I think was a better idea, and certainly resulted in better photos. The masses at our end were led by no one in particular on another march down Market street where traffic was blocked for about an hour.

Surprisingly, the march ended at the Castro with a whimper. With no one leading and nothing to do when we got there, the crowd thinned along the way as people sought refreshment, caffeination, or brunch. And for such a hot day and such a massive crowd headed in that direction, the Castro was actually quite calm.

I got a frozen latte, a haircut, some pieces for next Friday, and was on my way home to eat, deal, and practice when I was called up to the deck of the Lookout by David and Sean. Love those boys and I happily detoured. Shilpa had already gone home for brunch, but was called back for more sunshiny cocktails with the Trouble Makers.


Shouts to David and Sean! Thanks for making my day!