Gay Marriage Fight Still On 

After months of tense campaigning and rallying, the fight against Proposition 8 is still going strong. Across the nation supporters of gay marriage are banding together for a protest on a grand scale.

Join the Impact, the national protest taking place this Saturday, Nov. 15, might be the largest pro-gay marriage action to take place during this election period. The protest will consist of gatherings in front of city halls in every state, including seven locations in California alone.

“The Join the Impact protests are already bringing people together in a spirit of like-minded cooperation,” said Dale Tegtman of The Manifesto Workshop Group (ManiWoG), an activist organization focusing on social justice causes involving consensual sexual minorities. “Join the Impact is making this issue a federal issue and an international issue.”

ManiWoG representatives, along with many other gay rights supporters, will be at the San Francisco rally to provide on-message material. The rallies will also feature speakers from all parts of the LGBTQ community, local politicians, civil rights leaders, and religious leaders. Attendees are encouraged to bring signs and banners that express their support for gay marriage and civil rights.

State Senator Carole Migden, State Senator-Elect Mark Leno, Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon, and Mark Oliver and Clark Pingree of Mormons for Marriage will be among the many speakers emphasizing actions supporters of gay marriage can take—including signing petitions, donating money, and writing lawmakers—to help repeal marriage bans.

“A lot of people have been angry,” said Cat Williams, one of the organizers behind Join the Impact. “But anger can be positive or negative and a lot of times anger gets people to do things like lobby their politicians.”

While rallies increase support for the cause, Williams thinks that they also appeal to the legal process and show support for State Supreme Court judges who might repeal the measure.

“Join the Impact will encourage the judges because I know that a lot were receiving ugly mail and criticism as a result of their decision to repeal the 2000 same-sex marriage ban in May,” she said. “This will show them that we’re there with them and we support their decision.”

Although Williams thinks the rallies will have a tangible legal effect in California, she says the process in Arizona and Florida, which each passed bans, is much more difficult. Passage of Arizona's Proposition 102 and Florida's Amendment 2 prevents the legislature or courts from redefining marriage as anything other than a union between one man and one woman.

Jason Cianciotto, executive director for Wingspan, southern Arizona’s LGBT community center, said there is no legal recourse for opponents of the Arizona ban. Instead, Wingspan focuses on creating a community dialogue through the use of their website Families You Know.

“We’re really calling for a revolution in the way that the community has come together,” Cianciotto said. “We’re saying share your story so the stories can be told to families and friends so we can finally have the conversations we need to have with neighbors, and yes, even politicians, so we can start the dialogue to change things."

In addition to stories posted on their website, Wingspan will be holding a march and rally similar to the one in San Francisco, focusing on channeling frustration into positive thinking. The Join the Impact Tucson rally has been canceled in favor of Wingspan’s demonstration.

“We want to move beyond this dialogue started by the religious right and start talking about real people. That’s what this fight is all about,” he said.

Williams, who is one of about ten San Francisco Impact organizers, agrees and said that many people who voted for Proposition 8 did so out of ignorance and fear or because they didn’t know any gay people who would be affected by the ban.

“Having a visible demonstration will put a human face on Prop 8. It will show that these aren’t random gay people far away, that these might even be gay people in their family,” Williams said. “This will open people’s hearts and minds and show that we’re in society too and we matter.”

The San Francisco rally has 5,846 confirmed attendees on its Facebook webpage but expects thousands more. The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority expects ten to fifteen thousand demonstrators, though they did not release any information regarding traffic or train rerouting.

Join the Impact’s organizers expect a peaceful rally and a spokesman at the Northern Police Station’s Media Center, who requested anonymity, said that there will be no changes in police patterns for the protest.

“Increased police presence is up to the district stations,” the spokesman said. “San Francisco has a protest every day, and the police will either facilitate the protestors or separate them so each group can demonstrate peacefully.”

Join the Impact also encourages people to protest in front of their own city halls and not just at designated demonstration sites. Williams believes these smaller protests will strengthen support in cities that might not be such strongholds for gay rights.