11/06/2008
Thousands Join Marriage Equality Protest at L.A. Mormon Church
Right now approximately 3,000 demonstrators protesting the Church of Latter Day Saints' funding of the Proposition 8 measure banning gay marriage in California have left a protest that began near the Mormon Temple in Westwood and have shut down major roads at rush hour.
I took the screenshots above from the ABC live webcam at approximately 5:20 PM Pacific time. As you can see thousands are clogging one side of the street.
Intersections are also being blocked:
The action began with a planned 2 pm news conference in front of the Mormon Temple in response to the Mormon church’s leading role in the deceptive advertising campaign for Proposition 8. Lorri L. Jean, CEO, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Jorge Valencia, Executive Director, Point Foundation , and Rev. Neil Thomas, Metropolitan Community Church were to speak at the news conference.
One of the initiatives the organizers announced was THIS ONLINE INITIATIVE to help the organizations working to invalidate Proposition 8, coupled with a postcard campaign to the President of the Mormon church. See PDF here.
In related news, a drive is underway to strip the Mormon church of its tax exempt status. See HERE. And more protests are planned. See HERE.
A Towleroad reader reported in at about 3:15 pm California time that people were arriving by the hundreds in the intense heat and sunshine, shouting "tax the Mormon church" and "shame on you!" He sent along these photos. Church officials were reported to be seen standing on the front porch of the church, some of them filming the crowd.
Our reader texted: "Lorri Jean just arrived and is leading the crowd in a call and response of 'What do we want? - Equal Rights! -When do we want it? - Now!." He added, "[There is] heavy traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard right in front of the temple. Drivers are very supportive...honking horns and giving thumbs up signs. Crowd is spilling into street clogging traffic."
Half an hour later, at 3:45, our reader texted, "Thousands of protesters are here now...crowd is circling the temple perhaps because the back of the temple is closer to the street. Homeland security is here. Toward the beginning of the protest I saw LAPD on a gold cart-like vehicle driving by the crowd filming participants."
He adds, "Funniest chant so far: 'Bring me the head of Donny Osmond!'"
Here is a live shot I just took off the ABC website in L.A. Watch Live now. It's approximately 5:15pm there as I post this.
L.A. journalis t Karen Ocamb sent in the following shots:
Signs.
A 23-year-old protestor, people blocking traffic.
Gay Mormons protesting:
Jim Key of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center wrote in to me as well. He sends these additional photos and says:
"Despite the fact that the event was on a weekday, in the middle of the day, and in Westwood, there were 2,000-3,000 people there. In front of the temple we had a news conference, at which Lorri Jean announced the launch of www.InvalidateProp8.org and denounced the leaders of the Mormon Church for helping to raise more than $15 million to fund the deceitful ad campaign that helped Prop 8 pass by a small majority. Jorge Valencia, a former Mormon and ED of the Point Foundation spoke passionately, as did Rev. Neil Thomas, also a former Mormon. Then we marched all the way around the perimeter of the Temple, on side streets, while many people in the neighborhood cheered us on. After we came full circle, about 1,000 protesters kept marching to Wilshire Blvd. and the Federal building. Naturally, the Temple Gates had been locked and even topped with barb wire. As of 9 p.m. now, many are STILL marching. If there’s any silver lining to this, it’s that our defeat on Prop. 8 may result in a whole new generation of activists. It’s so inspiring to see that so many of the marchers and protesters are young people who have never done something like this before.
Here's the AP report on the march via the SF Chronicle.
Shots from two other readers, AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted 8:21 PM EST by Andy Towle in California, Gay Marriage, Los Angeles, Mormon, News | Permalink
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This is great - Because gays aren't already perceived as actively hostile towards religion.
I'm sure this will change a lot of people's minds, especially that 70% of ultra-religious church-going Black people.
Posted by: LightningLord | Nov 6, 2008 9:56:00 PM
It is something we need to be doing all over the country! We need to take to the streets and say that we will not take it anymore!
Posted by: John | Nov 6, 2008 10:00:00 PM
It is something we need to be doing all over the country! We need to take to the streets and say that we will not take it anymore!
Posted by: John | Nov 6, 2008 10:00:39 PM
Has Oprah said anything about Prop 8?
Seriously, why aren’t more celebrities being vocal?
- although thank you Ellen, Brad Pitt, Samuel Jackson, Lance Bass, Steven Spielberg and current protesters Rose McGowan and Wanda Sykes
Posted by: eric | Nov 6, 2008 10:03:31 PM
LightningLord:
Wake up and open a world history book pal, these kinds of group protests are the only way things will ever change.
Posted by: ROGER | Nov 6, 2008 10:12:18 PM
@John
Just going to the streets and saying we won't take it anymore is like blacks going to the streets and saying they demand a black president. It doesn't work that way. We live in a country of laws, and we have to work within that framework.
These protests should have been held BEFORE the election, when there were some actual goals that could have been accomplished, like stopping the flow of money from the LDS.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the NO ON 8 leadership, though well intentioned, were not up to the job and wasted valuable resources with a badly organized and executed campaign, including extremely poor ads. There also appears to have been a lack of research, or a failure to act on that research. We should have known that the LDS and several minorities would be areas of concern long before the hate money started rolling in.
The Christian Coalition of America has announced that their new goal is Prop. 8-type amendments in the remaining 20 states that don't already have one, incl. MA and CT:
http://tinyurl.com/648brb
We need to get ready and start a new national organization, learning lessons from the Obama campaign, and finally get an organization that has a clear strategy, finesse, knows how to operate on several fronts (minorities, religions, states), and plan for different scenarios. We did some of this with ACT UP, and we can do it again.
Posted by: MIke | Nov 6, 2008 10:13:19 PM
>>LightningLord: Wake up and open a world history book pal, these kinds of group protests are the only way things will ever change.
Roger,
You need to read up on your history. The history of the civil rights history might be a good start.
Marching and holding protest rallies just to express anger and frustration was NOT the way the civil rights movement generated social change. They had a firm legal strategy behind everything they did. Something our gay rights organizations might learn from.
Oh well, you march if it makes you feel better.
Posted by: LightningLord | Nov 6, 2008 10:19:38 PM
You all speak as if there is only one way for change, when in fact, the only time change has every actually happened in such a grand scale is when EVERY aspect of society is involved.
Fags: keep rioting.
Fag organizers: keep organizing.
Lawyers fags: keep strategizing and figure out a way to beat this.
Rich fags: keep funding.
Legislative fags: screw the mormans.
It takes activism in every arena. Stop tearing down any one branch, we're all on the same side. Do what you do best and contribute in the way you best can.
Look at the 60's. Students rioted against Vietnam, rich people donated against Vietnam, courts and legislators lobbied against Vietname. Who were the ones who tipped it? Students.
In other cases, it's been courts, or organizations. Either way, keep it peaceful, stay vigilant, and support EACHOTHER!
God I wish I was there.
Posted by: Derek in Madison | Nov 6, 2008 10:27:18 PM
Taking to the streets is actually a very effective way of getting your message out. It was a favored tactic of Martin Luther King, Jr. and it worked very well along with boycotts work stoppages and other actions. It is one tool of many that we have at hand. And if people are irritated by us stopping traffic and making them late just think how irritated they would be if we started taking away their rights to marriage or job security regardless of their religion or sexuality. Let them get angry, so what? Do you think they care what we think? Let's show people how mad we are and if it clogs up an intersection of two in the process, big deal!
Posted by: hamp | Nov 6, 2008 10:28:09 PM
This is too little, too late. We lost our right to marriage because the majority of the gays were too busy seeing Madonna and being secure with California that there was no way it passed. The No on 8 campaign ignored the minority vote (esp. the african-american vote, which is known to have a huge anti-gay leaning) and put out just plain horrible ads on TV. I wasted my money so they could put NO on 8 ads on LOGO and BRAVO?! WHAT?!
Posted by: JJ | Nov 6, 2008 10:33:14 PM
Hey Lightnighlord --
How about South Africa?
I'm pretty sure the CHILDREN'S REVOLUTION there wasn't legally thought out before it happened. They were children, all young people, thousands of whom were killed, that took direct action and eventually Nelson Mandella would be freed. Yeah, "legal" action was what would actually, eventually free him, but that never would have begun without the children on the ground fighting for what they believed in.
Everyone needs to stop being critical. Find a way you can contribute and shut the hell up.
Posted by: Derek in Madison | Nov 6, 2008 10:34:04 PM
The fight is never over. These bigots that were thrown out of NY State and continued their racism until just recently thinks that people do not remember how they wanted respect and equality while they pay for lies and deceit to people.
Screw Joseph Smith and his mythology.
Posted by: Gary | Nov 6, 2008 10:35:02 PM
I encourage everyone to go online and chat with a mormon at:
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/
Posted by: John | Nov 6, 2008 10:39:51 PM
@Hamp
Just transferring our anger to the very people who's support we need to accomplish our goals is not going to be productive. Again, we need to think like intelligent adults with a strategy, not angry teenagers.
Posted by: Mike | Nov 6, 2008 10:42:56 PM
Pass this along to your friends. Have the Courage campaign letter excerpts for cut and paste.
Chat with a Mormon now and be sure to thank them for their love. Then let us know how it went.
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/
Posted by: John | Nov 6, 2008 10:43:00 PM
Angry teenagers, you say?
Were you around for the Briggs initiative? I was. Were you in SF when Milk got shot? I was. Were you around when Dan White got off? I was. Were you around for AB101? I was.
Anger is exactly what we need now! Especially angry young people. Not candles and songs. Anger!
Get out in the streets, people. I was out last night and today.
Posted by: John | Nov 6, 2008 10:49:25 PM
barring court action we will need 2/3 vote 2 yrs from now to overturn prop8
3,000 protesters would be better served knocking on doors in LA gay ghetto registering our own to vote
3,000 protesters would do better by setting up booths every single day and night outside of every single gay bar and biz in LA grabbing every single gay person to pass by and make sure they are registered to vote
1/2 of ca gays are not registered to even vote an untapped extra 10% to our side
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Nov 6, 2008 10:53:50 PM
@john
I have no interest in talking to a cult member, yet alone thanking them for their "love".
Any anger we express at them on that page will just be used against us.
Posted by: Mike | Nov 6, 2008 10:55:09 PM
1/2 of CA gays aren't even registered to vote and few of you seem to be angry about that.
Slap your friends, slap 1/2 the people in our own bars, and then slap a freaking pen and registration form into their hands while threatening to slap them again unless they fill it out
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Nov 6, 2008 10:59:35 PM
@jimmyboyo
"any anger we express at them [Mormons]...will just be used against us"? If that's not a passive commet, I don't know what is.
What exactly have they shown us with their support for Prop 8 if not anger and more? You already know what they think of you.
And...jimmyboyo, what exactly are you going to do about it, if not protest, rally or march?
Posted by: john | Nov 6, 2008 11:02:03 PM
Sorry, jimmboyo, my last post was directed to "mike" on the couch.
Posted by: john | Nov 6, 2008 11:04:48 PM
John
registering apathetic gay voters just as I did pre the vote, get ignored by same apathetic gays, and drive elderly shut in gays to the polls in 2 yrs when we will need 2/3 vote barring court action
John, please explain how you are going to change a mormon opinion about us when their religion declares that it is impossible for us to get into their highest heaven
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Nov 6, 2008 11:06:12 PM
Derek,
Exactly. The pacifists who insist we should just "shut up" today are the same liberals who decried Mandela for taking up an armed struggle. Sometimes violence is necessary.
Since when has an appeasement strategy actually worked? Without a Malcolm X, whites would've never turned to a MLK. They only embraced King because he was the "alternative" to their precious cities going up in flames.
Posted by: John in CA | Nov 6, 2008 11:06:35 PM
Its all cool John
sorry for my response back
:-)
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Nov 6, 2008 11:07:49 PM
This war must begin with labeling bigotry 2hen we see it. We can no longer think that these people hate us because hate is a passive emotion. These people are inflicting their bigotry on us. It defines them and the pictures of the Prop 8 supporters celebrating the denial of basic human rights to others showed how much they enjoy it.
These people are bigots. Let’s call them what they are and take the battle to where they live. It has been said that in any war combatants must dehumanize the enemy in order to kill them. We are already less than human to them and they have a wide variety of laws to prove it. We have never sought to kill them as they have us. Nor will we outlaw the bigotry that is so important to their identities. What we must do is take from them what is most important to them: the ability to feel good about inflicting their bigotry on others. They must understand that what they do is immoral. It makes them bad people. They are no better than bigots because that is exactly what they are.
Posted by: Jay | Nov 6, 2008 11:07:58 PM