I strongly believe in human rights, and I believe that the gay, straight, or transgender deserve the right to marry and have the same rights. After Proposition 8 got passed yesterday, illegalizing gay marriages, San Francisco became a powder keg. Yesterday I joined up on a march against Prop 8 and to take some pictures. When I first tried to find the group I couldn’t find them at City Hall. After 15 min of following the police sirens and helicopters in the sky, I found them walking up to the Castro. I found this interesting because aren’t you supposed to walk against the opposition? It seemed to me that marching to the Castro was a subtle hint of retreat. When we all reached Castro people sat in the streets and talked about what they should do next. Various people talked about why marriages should be legal for everyone. Preaching to the Choir.  Finally, the militant people in the group had enough, and decided that San Francisco was “their city”, and they should march down on City Hall. I thought, now we are getting somewhere. Everyone pridefully grabbed their signs and marched against the corrupt system. It was like a riot. People walked against traffic with complete disregard of safety, police motorcycles swerved all over to stop cars from hitting people. It was bad ass, and nothing could stop them. Or so I thought. Out of nowhere we heard it, Gloria Estefan’s hit song 1-2-3. And then I saw the source of the music, coming in the opposite direction back up Market to Castro was a huge float, filled with gay men dancing. I could see the politically charged march slowing down, walkers looking at each other, starting to split. Half wanted to go party in the streets of Castro. And the rest wanted to march on City Hall. I opted to go with the weaker City Hall group to see where this would take them.  I found myself at City Hall as the only bystander taking photos of 15 people trying to act tough against 100 police officers. On the steps were two lines of cops, and City Hall security behind them. To the left and right of the steps were two rows of 6 police officers, park side had 10 motorcycle cops, and in the streets were 3 paddy wagons. I really wanted something drastic to happen for my camera but instead 2 people got arrested while the rest tried to play the, “hup! just walking by” routine. Very comical, everyone wants to be a martyr until the cops arrive.

I strongly believe in human rights, and I believe that the gay, straight, or transgender deserve the right to marry and have the same rights. After Proposition 8 got passed yesterday, illegalizing gay marriages, San Francisco became a powder keg.

Yesterday I joined up on a march against Prop 8 and to take some pictures. When I first tried to find the group I couldn’t find them at City Hall. After 15 min of following the police sirens and helicopters in the sky, I found them walking up to the Castro. I found this interesting because aren’t you supposed to walk against the opposition? It seemed to me that marching to the Castro was a subtle hint of retreat. When we all reached Castro people sat in the streets and talked about what they should do next. Various people talked about why marriages should be legal for everyone. Preaching to the Choir. 

Finally, the militant people in the group had enough, and decided that San Francisco was “their city”, and they should march down on City Hall. I thought, now we are getting somewhere. Everyone pridefully grabbed their signs and marched against the corrupt system. It was like a riot. People walked against traffic with complete disregard of safety, police motorcycles swerved all over to stop cars from hitting people. It was bad ass, and nothing could stop them. Or so I thought.

Out of nowhere we heard it, Gloria Estefan’s hit song 1-2-3. And then I saw the source of the music, coming in the opposite direction back up Market to Castro was a huge float, filled with gay men dancing. I could see the politically charged march slowing down, walkers looking at each other, starting to split. Half wanted to go party in the streets of Castro. And the rest wanted to march on City Hall. I opted to go with the weaker City Hall group to see where this would take them. 

I found myself at City Hall as the only bystander taking photos of 15 people trying to act tough against 100 police officers. On the steps were two lines of cops, and City Hall security behind them. To the left and right of the steps were two rows of 6 police officers, park side had 10 motorcycle cops, and in the streets were 3 paddy wagons. I really wanted something drastic to happen for my camera but instead 2 people got arrested while the rest tried to play the, “hup! just walking by” routine. Very comical, everyone wants to be a martyr until the cops arrive.

Permalink

Notes