Today in the South Park Blocks, a thousand or so people gathered to rally against the passage of Prop 8 in California, plus other anti-gay laws that sailed through in Arkansas, Florida, and Arizona on Election Day.
“Out of Oregon, some really bad things happened,” City Commissioner-elect Amanda Fritz said.
Democratic activist Laura Calvo noted that the crowd was “coming together not as gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender, but as an entire community,” alongside straight allies.
Mayor-elect Sam Adams also spoke, calling up Harvey Milk’s favorite way to kick off a rally speech: “My name is Sam Adams, and I’m here to recruit you!” he yelled. Also like Milk–who was the focus of last night’s spectacular red carpet movie premiere party at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall–Adams urged people to “come on out if you haven’t” and encourage others to “volunteer and support us.”
Rally co-organizer Lindsey Asher–who, with her partner, recently went to California to see the protests and marches happening there–said her partner’s parents “live in California and they voted yes on eight.”
“Let’s start a conversation with people,” she said, urging rally attendees to talk to everyone about gay rights and marriage equality, conversations that could bring “one more person on our side.”
“You must tell the person who’s selling you coffee every morning,” why “you believe in marriage equality,” she said.
The sound system at the rally was virtually non-existant–there was a lone megaphone on loan from the local chapter of Socialists–and Adams was by far the loudest speaker. But those on the periphery of the crowd could only hear “about 10 percent” of what he had to say, I found out later. Lucky for you, I recorded a big chunk of the rally–from Amanda Fritz through Rev. Nathan Meckley, which includes Asher, Adams, Laura Calvo, Bonnie Tinker, and others. It’ll be up in a few.
Check out this week’s paper for a full report–plus information on where the movement goes from here.
Farmer’s Market was busier and more lively than this secluded little pep rally/group hug. After seeing reports of how huge the crowds were in other cities all over the US, I’m really disappointed in Portland today.
John T,
Considering the length of time in which the Portland rally was organized (less than a week) I would think you should be proud of what was done. If you are so disappointed in Portland, why don’t you get up and organize something yourself?
I just might. My point is that Portland’s rally was disappointing in comparison to the other rallies happening simultaneously today, which were also organized on the same amount of short notice, but were larger and more visible, even in cities that are smaller than Portland, farther away from California, with worse weather, and in more politically hostile territory.
See for yourself:
Andrew Sullivan’s blog today has tons of photos. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
Our neighbors to the north in Seattle filled the streets with more than 10,000 marchers. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/…
Now I wonder how many voters changed their minds because of the united disapprobation of gays all across the country. I also wonder how many people will now vow to be sure to get out to vote against what I’m sure will be a bill to correct the situation. I’m happy we have gay marriage here, but I wonder how much protests elsewhere would have on how Oregonians vote on death with dignity. Ask yourself: would YOU do any fuckin’ thing about death with dignity because of rallies in Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Cleveland?
For every asshole with a “one man, one women” sign at these rallies, i hope there is a hundred with a “two girls, one cup” sign.
I have to agree with the first commentator. I was seriously disappointed by this rally. Even more so in comparison to those held elsewhere.
I understand that it was organized on short notice, but that’s an excuse that we can use to forgive ourselves so we don’t have to face up to inefficacy of the act. And a poor one at that.
There was an entire campaign cycle to start preparations should the measure have passed. Here is a place to take a lesson from our resident evil genius Bill Sizemore, who already has bills prepared for the next election cycle that are simply different versions of the ones we just voted down. If we are serious about gaining equal rights, then we need to take it seriously, and that means planning for the long term.
To conquer the highly organized right-wing hate machine, we need to be more organized than them, and that means that even if it’s on short notice, blunders like these are absolutely unacceptable.
Here’s a list of problems with that rally–which I attended and supported–but that need to be addressed so that those outside the choir will start paying attention.
1. The sound was atrocious. Speeches that can’t be heard are wasted. There are no excuses for those speeches being started without even a megaphone. Even less for there being no sound system worth speaking of. And even less for the speakers seeming inability to operate what pitiful excuses for a sound system that were there. We live in Portland people. Every basement in the city is stocked with music and sound equipment. Get with the program.
2. Time delays. People show up at ten thirty, to be told to wait around until noon? Are you serious? Talk about taking the wind out of people’s sails. There was energy, and it was wasted and dissipated by poor planning.
3. On the same tip, the lack of a march. Yes, I understand that legality needs to be maintained in order for the movement to stay in the right, and that the permit was for a rally, not a march, but people showed up with energy to do something, and were instead told to sit still. That doesn’t inspire action. Rally organizers failed big time here.
4. I could hear the speakers. And most of the time, I wished I couldn’t. Before I left out of disgust, they were weak, uninspiring, and often offensively inaccurate. One referred several time to “Project 8,” rather than Prop 8 before babbling a series of inaccurate statistics and mistakes about laws passed in other states and blaming the heterosexual community as a whole, another rambled about God washing away all discrimination, and another stood next to the stage rather than on it while reading a weak boilerplate statement. Huge mistakes were made about which parts of the political process was responsible for what actions by people who should have known better. I’m sorry, but that it just not good enough. To make this work, we need speakers who truly understand the issues, and have the ability to inspire and keep people motivated for what may indeed be a very long haul. I did not see those speakers at this rally. What I did see was primarily a self-congratulatory group of local celebrities offering bumper sticker level analysis of the issues. These rallies are the chance to get the real message out there to the media, and to the public and that opportunity was in my mind, wasted.
I will continue to support all actions taken to achieve equal rights in this city, and nationwide. But if they are to be ultimately successful, this kind of half-assedness should not be deemed as acceptable under any circumstances. We can do better. And to be victorious, we must.
And to me, the most upsetting part of this, is that I’m the one who seems most irate at the failure of this rally, and I’m not even gay.
The lack of a march perplexes me.
Am I the only one who remembers regular anti-war marches (Fridays maybe?) that simply stuck to the sidewalks and obeyed the traffic signals, thereby technically just being a bunch of people walking, not a “march”, and therefore required no permit?
After wandering around trying to figure out where this was (practically hidden on PSU campus on the far side of the farmer’s market) I arrived late. Which really made no difference whatsoever since I couldn’t hear a thing any of the speakers were saying except for a little bit of Sam Adams’ speech. I was heartened though by the turnout despite the location. There definitely should have been a march or something.