Saturday afternoon: The No on 8 Rally in Seattle.

[elfs]

Rally at Westlake Center

Omaha and I went to the No On 8 Rally this weekend. We were pressed for time with all the other stuff going on Saturday, but we were determined to make it to the main rally at Westlake Center and join in the chorus of voices. I know a lot of straight people who wonder why this is happening now, since the election is over. I've even heard "You lost, get over it." What those people don't understand, and need to understand, is that the closet is a real thing still. Being queer isn't like being a different color. You can go your whole life without coming out to co-workers or family. You don't really believe the threats will reach you because your queerness is invisible. It's not until you've actually been bashed that you react. Well, Proposition 8 in California is a bashing of biblical proportions, and the reaction is commensurate to the damage done.

Someone thinks he's cute.

The rally was pretty big, as these things go. There were lots of cute women there, not all of them obviously queer, and not a few hot men, including one quad of very good looking bears right in front of me who were snogging and, as I photographed them, one put his hand down the back of his partner's pants in a gesture that was more than mere fondness.

I ran into solarbird and snapped a pretty good photo of her from my vantage point. When I caught up to her and annathepiper, she said she'd tried to return the favor but the batteries in her camera were dead.

There were cops galore everywhere, blocking off streets, keeping people from being run over, and generally doing a better than usual job of keeping the peace. This was a peaceable rally, not an anarchistic nightmare like we had during the WTO. There were mounted cops, their horses leaving scads of horse shit everywhere, and bicycle cops, and even a Segway cop. There were newsvans from KOMO and FOX. There were tables for socialists, anti-war demonstrators, and pro-Palestinian efforts-- I don't get those, do they really think there's that much, not common cause, but just even overlap with the interests of gays and lesbians?

The sound was awful. Omaha and I tried to listen to the speakers, but the sound kept cutting out on the repeater speakers behind us, and sometimes an annoying echo effect crept into the mix.

Vicious Meme Replicators

There were scads of vicious meme replicators claiming that if we didn't submit to their zombie's telepathic demands something very bad was going to happen to us. It wasn't just one knot, either; there were competing churches, there were guys with shoulder-mounted portable amplification systems, there were varying degrees of threats and promise. There was even a Korean church with its own independent, promise-based posters, staying away from the big, burly guys threating hellfire and damnation.

But the crowd was full of kyootness, which kept me interested. I photographed kyootness in the set below.

After the rally, Omaha and I stopped by Lush where she bought some stuff for the kids, and then we took a bus back to where I'd parked the car, out in the light industrial district. It was better than trying to get into downtown and find a place to park; faster and cheaper, since we both own pre-paid bus passes. We didn't get home until nearly five, at which point we were pretty tired from the walking.

No on 8 Rally, Seattle, 23 photos.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Amazing how other can turn YOUR rally into THEIR rally, monopolize the stage and sound system for an hour, and then get all indignant when you ask them to let the ORGANIZER have a chance to speak.

We Missed It?

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

There was a "no H8" rally here in Seattle and we DIDN'T KNOW about it?

Damn!

Could you please drop us both lines about this the next time you hear about it? I can't believe we missed this one.

Glad y'all went.

Thanks!

[urox.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this as I observed the rally near where I was yesterday. If it had failed, there *wouldn't* be these demonstrations. Sure, the bigots would have tried again, but no one would be in the streets protesting because it wouldn't affect them nearly as much as passing affects people.

Aren't the horse cops responsible for cleaning up their own messes?

And WTO wasn't anarchist in the beginning except for that small group that was just out to create trouble. And we had a crappy mayor at the time as well.

As for the other interests tables, I don't think there is any less overlap with gays and lesbians than there would be with any other sexuality leaning group, but I think they're just trying to get their message to a potentially large group gathering and so see it as an opportunity. Don't know if it is really the right thing to do as I think it kind of dilutes the original message, but then again, I'm wondering what can Washington do about a California proposition as opposed to any national issues protesters that may have been there. Also, what is with the poster who keeps mentioning someone taking over another's rally? It's not the first time I've seen it.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I think the political nuts are at every rally, because they're desperate to get their grass roots on. They figure they need to evangelize at every possible opportunity.

You know, kind of like the street corner evangelists downtown, warning about the impending Rapture.