The crowd displayed their diverse reasons for attending the Join the
Impact rally Nov 14, which flowed onto blocks surrounding City Hall. Speakers addressed the crowd throughout the event.
Photos GRCC.
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By Dustin Fitzharris
Friday, November 07, 2008
Editor’s note: Read our related article about Internet activism here, a feature about the protests at a Midtown Mormon temple here and a feature about criticism of the LGBT movement in California here. In addition, Prop 8 opinion pieces are here, here and here.
More than 4,000 people stood shoulder-to-shoulder Saturday, Nov. 15, at Manhattan’s City Hall to protest Proposition 8, a same-sex marriage ban that passed in California on Election Day.
“This is our second Stonewall!” City Council member Rosie Méndez declared to the sprawling crowd that lined up and down Broadway.
New York was just one of about 80 major cities around the country that took part in the protest, called Join the Impact, that began simultaneously at 1:30 p.m. EST and 10:30 a.m. PST. The rallies came together in just a week’s time as part of the Internet-based grass-roots movement that popped up after the 52 to 48 percent vote that pushed Proposition 8 over the top. Since gay marriage in California was legalized in June, after a high court ruling, about 18,000 couples have said “I do” in the Golden State.
Join the Impact encourages the LGBT community and its allies not to look toward the past and place blame, but to look forward toward to future at what needs to be done to achieve full equality. It was launched via a web site by Amy Balliett, a 26-year-old activist in Seattle. Many unrelated protests targeted the Mormon Church, whose members financed and organized the Proposition 8 campaign, but Join the Impact is a more secular and inclusive push toward civil rights.
Five individuals younger than of 23—Evan Ferry, Carrie Harrington, Dani Ryan, Shalini Shah and Heath Tucker—spearheaded the New York City protest. They took over from Emma P., a 17-year-old in Connecticut, who, unaware of Join the Impact campaign, had originally posted a Facebook page to organize a City Hall protest. When thousands of readers responded, Emma P. realized she needed help.
New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) assisted in steering them through the red tape that comes with organizing such a large event. But it wasn’t easy because city offices were closed on Veteran’s Day.
Shah laughs, “Yesterday [Friday] every speaker was confirmed, but we didn’t even have a sound system in place!”
Those speakers included City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, U.S. Rep. Anthony Wiener, Assembly member Danny O’Donnell, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Marriage Equality New York’s Kathy Marino Thomas, Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle, former contestant on “America’s Next Top Model” and out lesbian Kim Stoltz, poet Emanuel Xavier and several others, plus a performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus.
“We could very well be on the verge of the next great civil rights movement,” organizer Tucker said in the event’s opening remarks. “I hope the generation who was doing this before us feel like they are passing off the torch.”
Seventeen-year-old Sean Flannagan is ready to accept the responsibility. In the crowd, he carried a sign with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on civil rights for African Americans that read: “Justice too long delayed is justice too long denied.”
“I feel it applies to our situation too,” Flannagan said. “If we just wait and wait, nothing will get done.”
The day began with drenching rains, and organizers wondered if the weather would keep people away. But minutes before the rally kicked off, the sunshine emerged as thousands altered President-Elect Obama’s slogan of “Yes we can” and chanted “Yes we will.”
“Anybody who thinks God hates gays, just look at the weather!” Quinn said. “I think we have a clear message with not one raindrop falling about who wanted this rally to happen today.”
Yetta G. Kurland, a civil rights attorney and candidate for city council in the 3rd district, was just one of many who realized the impact Proposition 8 has on New Yorkers.
“I think our ability to articulately respond to a really disappointing course of events is a testament to our movement,” she said, noting that the prohibition galvanized a national movement. “I believe in people’s abilities to respond to hatred in an eloquent way.”
Gilbert Baker, a veteran activist from the Harvey Milk era, responded in the fashion he always does—he created a banner. Baker, who created the rainbow flag in 1978, brought a 75-foot black and white cloth banner that read: New York Loves Gay Marriage. After hanging it up on a fence, he was told by a police officer he had to remove it because a city ordinance says nothing can be hung on city property.
Baker, no stranger to activism, responded to the officer, “Theoretically one could argue everything is city property.”
Decked out in a rainbow button-down shirt and red pants, Baker complied and took the banner down. “I made it for the crowd to play with anyway—not to get arrested. And I certainly don’t want to get arrested in this ensemble.”
According to organizers there were no arrests. But in addition to Baker having to take down his banner, protestors were asked to remove the sticks on their signs before getting into the area blocked off by barricades that a few police offices were calling “the pen.” Some of those signs included:
Did you cast a vote or stone?
Can I vote on your marriage now?
If God hadn’t created homosexuals, there wouldn’t be any.
Actress Heather Matarazzo (“Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “The L Word”) made T-shirts. One read: Dear Government, uphold the constitution, not the Bible. She broke down during her speech, telling the crowd, “I love you all.”
Leaving all the glamour at home, downtown performer Flotilla DeBarge stood quietly off to the side with a tambourine. “Today is about choice,” DeBarge said. “As Americans we should be allowed a choice to marry or not. Prop 8 infringes on my civil rights of separation church and state.”
The crowd booed only once—when Jeff Campagna, producer of “Posterboy,” mentioned New York State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr.’s name. Diaz and two other Democrats, Carl Kruger and Rev. Pedro Espada Jr. are threatening to stop Malcolm Smith from being named majority leader in the chamber unless Smith promises to not bring up gay marriage. (On Nov. 4, the Democrats won a narrow majority in the Senate.)
A marriage equality bill passed the State Assembly last July, and Gov. David Paterson has been a vocal supporter of the measure.
Campagna asked everyone to take out their cell phones and hold them in the air (which was a sight to behold). Then he gave out Diaz’s office number and asked everyone to program it into their address book and call it Monday morning to tell him to support Smith as Senate Majority Leader and to back marriage quality in 2009.
O’Donnell, who carried the marriage bill in the Assembly, said he remains “very confident” that his colleagues in Albany will do “the right thing” for marriage equality.
“My grandparents came to this country 80 years ago; not because it was the land of opportunity, but because the opportunity was supposed to be equal,” O’Donnell said. “Today I hope we point out to our straight friends and allies that we are part of the American dream and the American culture, and we are not going to take this anymore.”
Weiner, a probable mayoral candidate in 2009, echoed O’Donnell’s sentiments. “We [New Yorkers] are the state that has to have gay marriage, and we have to have it now. We are not there yet, but if they want to fight, I might not look like much, but I can handle myself. We’re ready to have that fight.”
Join the Impact is already planning its next event, titled Day Without a Gay. Everyone is encouraged not to call in sick to work on Wednesday, Dec. 10, but to call in “gay” and donate his or her time to service to show the love that comes out of the LGBT community. Alternative options are available to those who can’t afford to miss work. Facebook pages, T-shirts and volunteer events are already available.
As for the rally, it concluded on schedule at 3:30 p.m. And as organizer Harrington told the crowd: “You may hoarse, but you haven’t lost your voice.”
For more information on Join the Impact and Day Without a Gay, visit daywithoutagay.org.
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