Gay Rights Protest
November 16th, 2008 at 23:09

So yesterday, I went to a protest outside the American embassy. That’s right – after eight years of a disastrous Bush administration, they finally voted the good guy in, and that is when I decided to go on my first protest and hold America to account by standing in front of their building as part of a mob.

It was for a good cause though – it was against Proposition 8, the Californian constitutional amendment that will re-illegalise gay marriage there, that they bewilderingly voted in favour of on November 4th. See, previously I’d have made funny satirical references to the plight of the constantly persecuted minority of homophobes, but it looks like in California, the homophobes actually make up a slight majority of the state’s voters.

This is an issue very close to my heart, as I had been planning to move to California and marry a man.

I’m overselling my role in this slightly – I arrived horrendously late because I was pretty spectacularly ill, and then when there didn’t join in with the chanting or whatever, I was more an observer. This was mostly because my opinions are slightly more complex than something than can be summed up in a chant or a banner. I was planning to make a banner saying: “I UNDERSTAND THAT PROPOSITION 8 WAS PASSED THROUGH PROPER DEMOCRATIC PROCESS, BUT I BELIEVE THAT THIS INDICATES GREATER SOCIETAL PROBLEMS IN AMERICA, SUCH AS THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND THE POLARISATION OF POLITICAL POSITIONS DUE TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM, AS WELL AS A NUMBER OF OTHER ISSUES*”, and then describe my western-European solipsistic bias on the back of the banner for if I was challenged. But I couldn’t find a piece of card large enough.

What was a bit disappointing was that just how few people had turned up – on Facebook, over 800 people had been invited to the “event”, yet on the ground when I got there only around 15 people were present. According to others, at its greatest extent, there were perhaps 25 people. As I approached Grovesnor Square from the opposite side to the embassy, I approached the actually grassy part in the middle expecting to see it swarming with people and whistles being blown, and that sort of thing, but I couldn’t see anything – especially unusual as homosexuals tend to have a reputation for being colourful characters.

Even more bizarely, I can’t actual verify that there were any real life gays actually there at all. I’m straight and I was there with people who called themselves “bisexual” (which I guess sort of counts), “ambiguous” or “gender-queer” (whatever that means)… and if none did turn up, I’m slightly offended that I showed all of that solidarity and they couldn’t be bothered to make the effort for their own damn cause!

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