Malinda Lo
Blog
May 27, 2009
May 26 Day of Decision Protest, San Francisco
Last night I went to the protest rally following the California Supreme Court decision to uphold Proposition 8, which makes same-sex marriage illegal in California. I haven’t read the decision, but I did read portions of it, and I just wanted to pull out my favorite quote from Justice Carlos Moreno’s lone dissenting opinion:
“There is no ‘underlying’ principle more basic to our Constitution than that the equal protection clause protects the fundamental rights of minorities from the will of the majority.” — Justice Carlos Moreno
Go Justice Moreno!
The protest and march down Market Street was a lot more festive than I thought it would be. I think many of us arrived disheartened, but the speakers were very inspirational, and I’ve also found that any big gathering of queer folks tends to end up with a party-like atmosphere. It helped that the marchers were accompanied by some awesome drummers, and I always love the sense of humor in the hand-lettered signs. Following are pics of the rally and some of the best signs I saw:
Civic Center rally
Police in front of the California Supreme Court
Marching down the middle of Market Street
Gathering at Yerba Buena for the post-march rally
See, this is why I love San Francisco. What a liberal, accepting, and expressive city (and beautiful too!). Go, Malinda! One day the world will see how wrong Prop 8 is. After all, it took several decades for women’s rights and civil rights movements to achieve their goals.
Gay rights, the right to marry are civil rights. Too many African American youth think civil rights was won in 1968. I wish. Mad respect for you Malinda for attending.
Im from san diego and was up there for the weekend. i drove past city hall and decided to stop, and then a bunch of people started showing up, so my friends and i joined the protest and watched it grow for a while…but we had to cut it short and get on our way. i was looking to see how the out turn was, and came across your page. i really wish i could have stayed, and i love your pics. thank you.