Recently in Prop. 8 Marches Category

Michael Kearns sent me this video this morning, a spoof he wrote and directed featuring John W. McLaughlin as a Prop 8 activist receiving a long-awaited phone call from Marie Osmond!

I object to the David Archuleta reference but otherwise, this is smart and a good kind of bitchy.

Enjoy!

Richard Raddon has resigned from his job as director of the Los Angeles Film Festival following fallout over his being a contributor to the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign which successfully banned same-sex couples from getting married in California.

Raddon, who is Morman, had personally donated $1,500 to the Prop. 8 effort. When it came to light, via blogger David Poland, Raddon resigned. But Film Independent initially refused to accept it. But now, it has.

Here is Raddon's statement: "I feel honored to have worked with such a wonderful group of people at the Los Angeles Film Festival over the last nine years. I am proud of our accomplishments. And I am proud to have worked at Film Independent, an organization whose principles and values of diversity and artistic integrity I cherish. I have always held the belief that all people, no matter race, religion, or sexual orientation, are entitled to equal rights. As many know, I consider myself a devout and faithful Mormon. I prefer to keep the details around my contribution through my church a private matter. But I am profoundly sorry for the negative attention that my actions have drawn to Film Independent and for the hurt and pain that is being experienced in the GLBT community."

The board of Film Independent said in a statement that it accepts the resignation "with great reluctance."

"Rich's service to the independent film community and to Film Independent has been nothing less than extraordinary," the board stated. "He has always shown complete commitment to our core principles of equality and diversity during his long tenure. It was through his leadership that the Los Angeles Film Festival has grown into a formidable and exciting showcase for talented artists and diverse voices. We are sorry to see him go."

During a conference call to promote her upcoming NBC variety special, Rosie O'Donnell addressed the criticism that she had been surprisingly mum on Prop. 8 before the election: Not only is the the former talk show host not planning to speak out on politics on her show, she says people have been surprised she hasn't more loudly condemned Proposition 8, She said her February 2004 marriage to Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco speaks for itself: "I realized when Kelly and I were married it was in some ways an act of civil disobediance as much as it was a love story," she said. "I kind of found it surprising that people say you're not vocal enough. I'm not vocal enough? ... I've lived my opposition to Proposition 8 and have for... years."

Well, we still needed ya Rosie.

Here is our future. She was among the throngs in downtown LA Saturdat morning for a spirited rally followed by a march around the streets. I don;t know how many people were there total. I was told initially that it was 12,000 to 13,000 but The Advocate puts the numer closer to 20,000. I dunno, felt like a million to me! (photo courtesy of Karen Ocamb)

And here is a grown-up cutie. I don't know who he is, I've never met him, but snagged it off my friend Jim Key's Facebook page. If anyone knows who is, let me know!

I always liked Niles better than Frasier anyway, didn't you?

Anyway, actor David Hyde Pierce, who won multiple Emmys for his role on "Frasier" and a Tony Award last year for "Curtains," was among the marchers in downtown LA on Saturday and he was interviewed exclusively by Anne Stockwell for Advocate.com.

Here is the piece:

David Hyde Pierce is Gay, Married... and Marching Against Prop. 8

As Dr. Niles Crane on the hit sitcom Frasier, David Hyde Pierce had a great deadpan. That also extended to his own life: for years he wouldn't confirm or deny being gay. Since then he thawed enough to thanked his longtime partner, Brian Hargrove, in his 2007 Tony Award acceptance speech.

And on Saturday, Pierce was one baseball-capped protester among maybe 20,000 others marching for equality in Los Angeles. He was still deadpan -- dead serious. But in five minutes he told me more than he's ever said in his stellar career.

As we talked, I noticed Pierce was wearing a wedding ring. I asked, and he confirmed: "Yeah, we got married three weeks ago."

Advocate.com: David, why are you here now? For a long time you've chosen to be circumspect about -- I remember you saying, "My life is an open book, I just don't choose to read it." Why now?

David Hyde Pierce: For one thing, I said that 15 years ago, so life has changed a lot in 15 years. But this is not about being gay. This is about having the basic right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and having that put up for a vote, not only here in California but across the country, and that is just fundamentally not what this country is about. And I completely understand the passions on both sides of this issue, but like I said, those rights are not negotiable no matter whether people like it or not. We're not trying to force anything on anyone. We're trying to go about our lives and live them the best that we can. So that's why I'm here, and that's why all these people are here.

Do you foresee now that more celebrities will become involved in speaking out against Prop. 8, now that it's passed?

I have no idea what celebrities will do. I think the real issue for me is that this should never have been something that people voted on. This is not a country where people get to vote on people's private lives, where people vote on whether we get to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. That's part of the fundamental right of being an American. And so that to me is the miscarriage of justice--not the way the vote went. I'm proud that at least in California it was close. There are other states where it wasn't close at all, and they even took away the right to adoption. To me the issue is, this should not be an issue divided by voters.

When friends ask you to separate, or distinguish between, religion and civil law on this issue -- it seems to be a point of confusion for so many people--what do you tell them?
A: Religion and civil law are already separated in this country. And I actually don't think it's so much an issue of separation of church and state; I think it's a separation of emotion and fear, and passions getting stirred, from reality. The reality is, this whole marriage thing doesn't affect anyone but the people getting married. And people have been led to believe and the passion's been stirred up that it's going to affect their children and it's almost as they think, if gay people can get married, then the whole country has to turn gay. It's craziness, and it doesn't deal with the simple reality. The reality of the vote, what people were really voting on here, was, do you believe that the people of California should have a right to vote on who you choose to marry, whether you're straight or gay. That was the vote. And miraculously, the people of California voted yes, we think everybody should get a vote in our marriage. They can't have meant that. They can't have really understood what they were voting for and voted for that, because it doesn't make any sense.

Good grief, this a three-parter! Good thing I took a nap when I got home from the march late this afternoon!
I certainly didn't want to give short shrift to Lorri L. Jean, the CEO of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center who has been so passionate about this fight, been talking about it, and calling for action long before this past election. On Saturday, she looked out over the huge crowd and said of its size: "This is what happens when we are denied our rights! ... Everybody is here to speak out against injustice at all levels. I want to thank all of you for coming today and I especially want to thank the young leaders who did most of the work of pulling this event together. They have found their voice, they're helping to lead, they are using the Internet to organize and are teaching many of us grizzled old veterans some new ways to power."

"Last night on the Larry King show on CNN, they kept running a banner calling this the war over gay marriage. That's not quite right. This is a war for fundamental civil rights and basic human decency. (applause). And let there be no doubt about it, we might have lost this particular battle, but we are going to win this war." (more applause).

Lorri added: "November 4 is a day that will live in imfamy because it was the very first time in our nation's history that a majority of voters went to the ballot box and stripped a minority of their fundamental rights. That is an outrage!"

She closed by saying: "All of us here must vow today to do everything we can to oveturn this travesty of justice, to make right this horrible wrong that has been done."

Following Lorri onto the stage were three lovely ladies with huge gay followings: Ricki Lake, Lucy Lawless and Marissa Jaret Winokur,

Said Ricki: "There's a line that I say (in the first 'Hairpray' movie') "I wish I was dark-skinned. Well today, I wish I was gay! I'm thrilled to be here to show my suport."

Chimed in Marissa: "I am here to support all of you and to support my son in marrying a man someday. He's only three months old but we're hoping!"

Added Lucy: "We rode the soul train (subway) in this morning and it was so great with everybody piling in at each station, it was really exciting. There's an old Chinese saying which is: 'Do not fear, the enemy is outside the walls. Fear the wall builders.' But can you feel that wall coming down? And you know what? They will fight back with their bag of dirty tricks but keep spreading the love and do the right thing...Be warriors for equality!"

As the rally was wrapping up and the march beginning, I had a quick word with Ricki Lake in the VIP area. She said the election of Barack Obama and passage of Prop. 8 on the same night reminded her of the divide she often addressed on her old talk show: "We even did gay marriage back then and you always have these groups of people that are homophobic, that are ignorant, that are un-Christian-like and I think it's just heartbreaking. ..It's fear, it's also self-hatred, it's self-loathing. It's all this fear-based information that's out there. We need to stop hating people and start loving everyone."

Then it was off to march!

I grabbed a beautiful poster that had been taped to the back of the stage to march with because I had given my rainbow flag to some little kid earlier.

Did the first part down Spring Street and beyond with Brad Fuhr of PrideRadio, Michael Fererra, the CEO of Lifeworks Mentoring and his husband Gregg Boyd.

\Then caught up with my pal Jim Key and Thomas Soule )pictured above) who has just begun working in public information at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center and who I had met at the NLGJA convention a few years back. It was damned hot by this time, about 95 degrees. At one point we passed by a rough-looking pool bar and discussed how out of place we might seem if we went in there. Jim jokingly imagined we'd say: "Three Appletinis please." We also were getting just a tad tired of doing the same chant: "What do we want? Equal rights! When do we want 'em?" "Now!" It's a good chant but we were just thirsty for a little variety.

Speaking of thirst, we were soon near Olvera Street - parched - so Thomas and I darted over to get drinks, losing Jim in the process. Then we marched, and marched, and marched. But there was no more chanting and once we went over the freeway overpass and were in front of Chinatown, we wondered where everyone was heading - there were thousands of people going up Alameda but we decided not to be two of them. Thomas and I joined hundreds of other people at the subway station and headed back to Union Station then onto the red line for the ride back to Hollywood.

An amazing day.

Photos courtesy of Jim Key, LAist and Advocate.com

If you want your rally to move along nicely with a little bit of humor mixed in, then try and get Alec Mapa, the self-proclaimed "America's Gaysian Sweetheart" as your host. He bounded to the stage set up at First and Spring streets Saturday morning and greeted the estimed 10,000 to 11,000 people there to support marriage equality for gays and lesbians.

Alec opened with the day's most used chant: "What do we want?" "Equal Rights!" When Do we want 'em?" "Now!" Then he said: "Good morning! And welcome to the future!"

Loud cheers.

Alec: "The passage of Prop. 8 was not the ending of our movement toward marriage equality, it was only the beginning! Look around you! This is not over by a long shot. We are one of hundreds of cities worldwide in nine different countries standing in solidarity for this movement today."

Mapa, who recently married his partner of seven years, encouraged conversation with family and friends and encouraged everyone "to make this the most interesting Thanksgiving you've ever had!" He also recalled the emotions of his wedding day: "On the day that we got married, my husband's Church of Christ parents were there, my own Filipino Catholic family was there. And on that day we realized that there is only one kind of love. On that day all of our families realized that we all want the same things. The only difference is, we're gay so we want nicer things!"

Here are excerpts from some of the speeches:

Bill Rosendahl, the only openly gay member of the Los Angeles City Council: "This is the birth of Stonewall 2! And we will never, ever get off the streets, out of the courts or not make demands for full equality. ...
Rosendahl was joined on the stage by Diane Olson and Robin Tyler, the couple whose lawsuit was the basis for the California Supreme Court ruling last spring that granted marriage rights to same-sex couples.
"On May 16 we were granted equality and on June 16 they kicked off 18,000 weddings.," he said of the couple. "They are the lesbians who started this all and they're the Rosa Parks of our fight for equality."

A few minutes before 11 a.m., about a half-hour into the rally, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villariagosa arrived at the rally coming directly from the fires in the San Fernando Valley. His speech was at times very inspiring:

"I love you Los Angeles!" the mayor began. "I love you in every sense of the word!"

"Some have said, 'Well Mr. Villariagosa, I don't like your position on Proposition 8.' They said, 'Who are you to get involved in this issue?' Well I think we got elected to stand up for a constitution. I think we got elected to stand up for the idea that in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of God, thou shall not discriminate! (long applause). "You know, I didn't live - none of us did - during the times of Jesus. But I'd like to believe that the Jesus I love, the Jesus I pray to, didn't just talk about being a shepherd, he knew that the role of the shepherd was to bring the flock in. All of the flock. Every one of us."

The mayor later added: "You can't deny a fundamental right just because a majority says so (applause).

"We come today to begin a conversation because it's not just gonna be about demonstrations. It's not just gonna be about the Internet. We're gonna have conversations in our neghborhoods, in our schools, in our churches ... in city halls and the halls of congress, in the legislature. We're gonna take every opportunity to begin that conversation all the way to The White House!"

He then prepared to head back to the fires but first said: "Every one of us here has to commit to going back home, to talking to our friends and our family. This is not about a march on November 15. This is not about the anger and the pain and the disappointment that we all feel just a few short days after this election. ...We believe in this great state, we believe in this great America. We believe that all things are possible and we will continue our fight until every one of us has the right, the fundamental right, to marry, to live in liberty and freedom, to be able to participate. To have the same civil rights that we expect in this great country we love so much."

That was an awesome speech! Why was Villariagosa not featured in any of the No on Prop. 8 commercials I wonder (unless i missed it).

Darryl Stephens, who I had spoken to before the rally, followed the mayor onto the stage and talked about his euphoria over Barack Obama being elected president then the crashing down of emotions over the passage of Prop. 8. "I got stuck on the question: 'Had I done enough?' If we had this kind of turnout at the No on Prop. 8 phone banks, we might not be here. And with that disappointment and frustration, came anger. And anger can be dangerous: it can make a lot of amazing things happen but it can also tear them down even faster."

He said his "heart broke" when he learned that blacks had overwhelmingly voted in favor of the measure, more than any other ethnic group: "What were my people thinking? But, just as it was ignorance that fueled the yes on 8 vote, it was just as ignorant to point to one group for a failure that was all of ours. Don;t get me wrong, it sucks that it passed. It sucks that it was on the ballot in the first place. But perhaps now it is time for us as the gay community to reach out - out of our bubble. And perhaps now people of color will see how important it is to come out to our families because so many of us who come out, get out. And when we move away, that community grows up not seeing gay brothers and sisters that look like them, that live down the street with them, went to school with them, swam in their pools, played basketball in their driveway... The black community and the gay community are not mutually exclusive."

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice talked strategy with the crowd: "Listen up: we';re fighting with you in the courts. If the courts don't do it, then we have a long campaign and it;s gonna take strategy - smart strategy.... Don't blow it. Let me tell you why the country is coming with us. Because of the manifest dignity of those wonderful couples together longer than most of the folks in the straight community I know."

Rice reminded people to not let their anger get the best of them: "If you think Martin Luther King wasn't pissed as hell, you're wrong. But you want to know something? They put that in the trunk of the car, in the back of the bus while they went to the front of the bus and we've got to do the same thing. Dignity! Equality! Now!"

Wow. what an amazing speaker. I'm so glad Connie Rice is on our side.

Coming up: The passionate speech of LA Gay and Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean, my post-rally interview with Rikki Lake and the march around the streets of downtown LA to Chinatown.

Photos courtesy of Jim Key

An amazing day.

I was among the estimated 12,000 to 13,000 people who descended upon downtown Los Angeles this morning for a major rally and march in support of same-sex marriage. It was such an adventuire and so inspiring. The fires that are raging in SoCal were also on everybody's mind but the event did go on as planned and was a rousing success.

I'm first going to share with you my adventure in getting downtown from my home in the Fairfax District. I confess, I've never taken the subway in Los Angeles. In New York City, DC, London, Paris and Chicago yes. Los Angeles? Never. It was an experience - a really good one. I hopped on the red line at the Hollywood & Highland station at around 9:15 with dozens of other marchers toting signs. The crowd grew with every stop. A friend remarked: "I don't think I've ever seen this many queens in a subway." It made me laugh and he insisted I not quote him by name!

Actor David Dean Bottrell ("Boston Legal") was standing nearby in our subway car and I wanted to get his thoughts on the uprising that has taken place since the passage of Prop. 8 last week.

"I don't love crowds but I'm willing to go down and brave it today because I really do believe that Prop. 8 has got to be repealed," David said. "I am very proud not only of the gay community but of the straight community that has come out to support this. It's very, very important that the people of California know what happened: a very large group of people lost their civil rights and it was done in a popular vote which is not how we do things in this country. This is a judicial issue and it should be settled in the courts the way that all civil rights issues are settled."

Got to First and Spring streets pretty early but there were already lots of people there toting such signs as "I Can See Hate from My House" (a riff on Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL), "Thank You Gavin Newsom," "Justice For All," "Marriage is a Human Right,"

I quickly staked out a place with fellow journalist Karen Ocamb (pictured above) in the front so we could see the speeches clearly. But our friend Jim Key of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center soon got us into the VIP section and we were able to roam around and chat with various folks before the "official" festivities began including well-known civil rights attorney Connie Rice who told Karen and I why she was at the rally:

"I have fought exclusion based on race, gender, national orgin, class, disability, age, you name it. If I'm against exclusion and on those basis, I have to be, absolutely, against exclusion based on sexual orientation. We cannot have a two-tier separate and unequal allocation of basic rights. This is about equal access to basic rights."

"I'm the great-granddaughter of slaves and slave owners. We are talking about civil law, not religious law. In the realm of civil law, my great-grandparents who were slaves could not marry. My grandparents, because they were African-Americans, they did not have full rights. My marriage to a Jewish man was at one time illegal under civil law. We changed all of those laws. Now, it;s time to end separate and unequal marriage for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals. If you have civil law and its a fundamental right, the majority does not have the whim tio change it. It cannot be changed on a whim."

I then spotted West Hollywood City Councilman John J. Duran who has spoken so eloquently about the issue before and after the election. I wondered what his thoughts were about this uprising that has occured since the election and the unprecedented activism among younger people. Here's what Duran had to say:

"I'm pleasantly surprised and I'll tell you why. A lot of these kids, and I call them My kids, they didn't experience the battle during the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. They were children or not even born yet. This is sort of the first time that they've felt the sting of some sort of state-sponsored oppression. Half the people in this state just told them they belong as second-class citizens. That's very upsetting. I guess for some of the old-timers like myself, this is the nature of the game: three steps forward, two back. But for them, this is the first time they've had the back of the hand come across them and they;ve responded as I did when I was their age. So out of these ranks is the future of the gay and lesbian community of Southern California. It's absolutely thrilling."

And then there was Darryl Stephens who I have written a lot about on the blog recently in connection to his performance as the title character in the film "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom." What I'm discovering is that he isn't just Darryl Stephens the actor, he is a very well-spoken activist and leader.

"It's really impressive that so many groups came together, leaders of organizations in Los Angeles came together to pull this into a cohesive rally and it's great to have the support of the police and the city and the mayor and straight allies. It's so inspiring on so many levels. It's awful that Proposition 8 passed, but I have to say, the rallies that have happened since then, seeing all these people come together in the streets, it's awe-inspiring and it's really moving. I'm so happy to be here."

So where do we go from here? Here's what Darryl had to say:
"The fact is, gay folks kind of live in a bubble in West Hollywood and other gay neighborhoods. We held Prop. 8 protest rallies on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Robertson where we didn't really need to convince anybody. We really need to get out of our bubble and start reaching out to people in our communities because the gay community encompasses everybody. There are Black, Latino, Catholic, Morman. Everybody is here and we have to start reaching out to those people in our communities and in our families who don't quite get it yet. Realy I think it's a matter of exposure, it's a matter of knowing people who you love who are gay. I think we're so used to moving out of our communities, moving away from those people who don't quite know what to do with us yet. We have to go back and we have to let them know how important equality is for us and that we are living the same lives that they're living and we want the same rights that they have."

I found myself a nice spot by the stage and listened to the speeches that followed, so full of passion. Kudos to Mayor Antonio Villariagosa for coming straight from the fires in Sylmar to keep his appointment with us.

Photos courtesy of Jim Key and LAist