Protest at massachusetts state house

[Khartoun2004]

So I just got back from Boston today. I have absolutely no voice left from screaming my head off all day. But it wasn't for nothing. I found this article at CNN.com and there's a picture of me scream out some chant. I'm not sure which one though. Anyways as of right now the legislature has yet to make a decision about the constitutional amendment. I'll add the verdict here when I get more news. Oh and I'll post a more detailed account of my day later if anyone is interested.

CNN article about state house protest

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Alright I just got word of the ruling. Today is a very sad day for the United States. The Amendment banning gay marriage, but allowing Civil Unions passed.

129 for and 69 against

all hope isn't lost yet. The amendment still has to survive two more votes; one in2005 and one in 2006, before it even gets on the ballet in november 2006. Then its up to the people. My friends and I are already planning next year's rally/protest. I'm not giving up yet.

edit: I found out yesterday that there was a lot of vote swaping going on. The people opposed to the amendment were switching sides trying to confuse those for the amendment. Somehow their communication got messed up and the whole vote did not go as planned. That's encouraging, at least we know that the vote should have turned out differently. I was surprised that the bill passed with so many votes to begin with. It was defeated by a margin of 20 votes twice last month.

Whatever happens, gay couples can still get married starting May 17th 2004. I can't wait for my cousin's wedding, it's about time he got to have one.

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ok as for my day. It was long and exhausting, but here's my story...

So at 5:50am I left my house with my mom to pick up my friend Dave at his house. My mom dropped us off at Attleboro Station around 6 and we caught the 6:30 train into Boston.

Dave and I arrived at South Station in Boston at like 7:30 and then we took the red line (subway) to Park st. Then we went above ground and walked across the commons to the State House at about 7:50. There were maybe 20 people outside on our side and about 75 of these hispanic fundamentalists holding up signs that said various things about how marriage is between one man and one woman. But they were actually very civil and left us alone.

We set up this huge banner on the edge of the side walk that I was holding half of and then I had my rainbow flag, so I had one side of that in my other hand. It was really a sight to see. There was like a huge wall of support on the side walk and then a wall of hate on the steps in front of the main gate to the state house. The contrast was amazing.

Anyways, we started yelling chants and singing and people were honking their horns as they passed by. In other words, we had no problems of any kind. That is until we got word from the cops that this antagonistic fundamentalist "jesus" freak group was coming. That's when things got interesting. In the mean time our numbers are multipling rapidly. In an hour we went from 20 to almost 150 people. It was great.

Then the "homo sex is a sin" group showed up and things got kind of ugly verbally. You know the whole, "You fags are going to hell and burn for eternity," or " Homosexuality is a sin, repent for your sins," I think you get the idea. Well we took the higher ground and ignored them, but of course it only pissed them off more.

Then they started to attack individuals and that's when I was glad to have almost 200 people around me for support. This one guy actually came up behind me and was like, "Are you a man or a woman," and "If you like to dress like a man, how come you hold such hate and disdain for men, Your going to burn in firey depths of hell." blah, blah, blah. There's more that he said, but we tuned him out by chanting, "Defend don't amend" louder. It was so awesome. I totally ignored the guy and he go so pissed off, I loved it.

Anyways basicly more people kept showing up and by 11:00 there were more people against the amendment than for the amendment and You could hear the chants for equality all the way on the other side of Boston Commons.

Dave and I were losing our voices by that point, so we decided to try and get into the hearings inside. Unfortunately they were filled to 500 over capacity, so we couldn't get in. Oh well that kind of sucked, but it was cool at the same time. All over the building you could hear the chants in favor of gay marriage. It was very uplifting. Dave and I poked around for a while because I'd never been inside and we ended up finding this really cool enclosed court yard. I found my friend Heather in there actually, so we hung out with her for a little while.

Then we tried to get into the hearing again and we got as far as the third floor, but it sucked becuase you couldn't see anything. Also the legislature was on a recess, so nothing was going on anyways. We got bored and decided 7 hours at the state house was enough and we caught a train home at like 3pm.

Overall I'd say its was one of the best experiances I've had in my whole life. I think the only place were I've seen as many rainbow flags would have to be p-town on cape cod. It was totally worth the sour throat I have now and lack of voice. Definitely better than spending the day in school. Although I didn;t get the chance to kick a fundamentalist in the shin for my Vice principal. I was being passive aggressive instead.

Ok that's all for now. This is just a general outline of what happened. I'll add more details later, right now I have an English paper to write.

[madeldoe]

ohh im definately interested!! please post when you can. Thats awesome that you took part in that, much props :thumbsup: lol nice pic by the way!

[Unplugged]

Khartoun2004, please post when you can That sounds very interesting. Congratulations for your demonstration

Oh, and what the hell were those signs saying "Jesus is the Lord" - ?? Don't tell me it was another one of those catholic fundamentalists who raise signs saying "Jesus hates homos" or stuff like that That's so sad. Using God's name to show intolerance and descrimination... that's a total lack of respect

[QueenBee]

Interesting.. please post more when you can!

[Unplugged]

Alright I just got word of the ruling. Today is a very sad day for the United States. The Amendment banning gay marriage, but allowing Civil Unions passed.

129 for and 69 against

This is really sad. I can't believe something like this can happen - people already HAD rights, but then those rights are taken away from them?! WHY?! I don't understand! If gay marriages weren't allowed from the beginning, that would be a different thing... but giving people their rights and then taking it back? This is unbelievable.
Of course, it could only be the idea of that FUNDAMENTALIST SON OF A BITCH called Bush.

all hope isn't lost yet. The amendment still has to survive two more votes; one in2005 and one in 2006, before it even gets on the ballet in november 2006. Then its up to the people. My friends and I are already planning next year's rally/protest. I'm not giving up yet.

You rule! It's people like you who make the world change

That is until we got word from the cops that this antagonistic fundamentalist "jesus" freak group was coming. That's when things got interesting. In the mean time our numbers are multipling rapidly. In an hour we went from 20 to almost 150 people. It was great.
Then the "homo sex is a sin" group showed up and things got kind of ugly verbally. You know the whole, "You fags are going to hell and burn for eternity," or " Homosexuality is a sin, repent for your sins," I think you get the idea. Well we took the higher ground and ignored them, but of course it only pissed them off more.

they started to attack individuals and that's when I was glad to have almost 200 people around me for support. This one guy actually came up behind me and was like, "Are you a man or a woman," and "If you like to dress like a man, how come you hold such hate and disdain for men, Your going to burn in firey depths of hell." blah, blah, blah. There's more that he said, but we tuned him out by chanting, "Defend don't amend" louder. It was so awesome.

I'm so tired of people using God in the name of racism, intolerance, violence and death. Where is this going ? When will it stop?


Anyway, thanks so much for your report.

I am deeply touched by what happened yesterday in Madrid, that horrible terrorist attack and I wonder if this will happen in Portugal too (that's where I live), as our stupid prime-minister also kissed Bush's ass on the stupid Iraq war for the non-existent weapons of mass destruction ( )... and with all this madness, all this hate in the world, it makes me feel really good and honoured to be a human being when I see such people like you. Thank you, Laura, and congratulations once again for your imense courage and dignity.
Never change

[Khartoun2004]

staringelf, Thank you for your compliment. I knw there are many stupid, ignorant people in the world. I feel that the only way to change that is to stand up for what you believe in and for everyone's rights. I always feel lucky to have been born in the US even with Bush as a president because of the fact that I can do what I did on Thursday and not have to worry about my safety or getting thrown in jail because I disagree with the president and my state's governor.

[ypsidan04]

Originally posted by Khartoun2004
"Defend don't amend"

What exactly does "defend" mean?

Glad to hear you had a good time, even if it didn't turn out right.

Originally posted by staringelf
Oh, and what the hell were those signs saying "Jesus is the Lord" - ?? Don't tell me it was another one of those catholic fundamentalists who raise signs saying "Jesus hates homos" or stuff like that That's so sad. Using God's name to show intolerance and descrimination... that's a total lack of respect

Here's a copy of a post I made somewhere else.

Originally posted by ypsidan04
This makes me sick. I don't care if you're gay, straight, round, or square, this should be looked at as totally deplorable:

"God Hates Fags" contains an archive of photos depicting Fred Phelps and his supporters picketing, carrying signs bearing slogans such as "No Fags in Heaven"; "Thank God for AIDS," and "2 Gay Rights: AIDS and Hell." According to God Hates Fags, WBC has "conducted some 10,000 such demonstrations during the last five years at homosexual parades and other events," including the funeral of slain University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

"Matt Shepard now believes in the Bible. He checked into Hell Oct. 12 [1998] where the worm that eats on him never dies and the fire is never quenched...Not the wealth of the world, nor an act of Congress, nor a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, nor all the prayers of mankind, nor any power on earth _ can buy Matt Shepard a drop of water to cool his tongue or ease his pain _ or ease his sentence a day short of eternity."

http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/homophobia.asp

Why do we have to share the world with these people? I don't have 1/100th of an ounce of respect for discriminatory hate preaching homophobes. I hope they all go to hell.

"2 Gay Rights: AIDS and Hell.": I'd smack the sons of bitches, and then kick em in the ass. I'll bet some people here might kill em. Hate like this is just beyond understanding. And then they have the nerve to say that homosexuals are going to hell and they are not.