You Ever Get the Feeling: My Fair Share of Abuse

I went to the rally in favor of gay marriage at Los Angeles City Hall this past Saturday. The Metro was packed heading down, full of people carrying signs, people cheering. Each station, we picked up more and more people, the energy level constantly rising. Once we reached Civic Center station, the crowd exited, en mass, and trudged upward to the light of a hot Los Angeles day. One of the speakers at the rally said, "It's November in Los Angeles, which means it's 700 degrees." She wasn't far off. It was hot. It was unbearable in the sun, but the shade was alright, and nobody seemed to mind that I was sweating like Jason Giambi. It was that kind of crowd.

People spoke: Ricki Lake, Lucy Lawless, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo (Edan shouted "Take down those damn electronic billboards!"). I was surprised to find myself tearing up as people (not Lucy Lawless, who made that Xena noise) spoke about how important the issue is and how much it meant to them personally. I thought about all the people I know who are affected by the passing of Prop 8, and, well, I was glad I was wearing sunglasses. I saw Pink standing in the crowd. Everywhere people were holding signs. Some people had brought their kids. Some had brought their dogs, which just seemed cruel.

After about forty minutes of speakers, we started to march. This is what the crowd had come for, but it felt a little anti-climactic. Downtown LA isn't the most happening place on a Monday morning, let alone a Saturday morning. There weren't that many people out to see us, and those that were were definitely part of the choir, so to speak. Still, it felt important to be there, to be counted.

Anyway, I know this isn't my usual type of blog post (I'll write something about Kim Kardashian tomorrow to make up for it), but I did take some photos that I think are interesting. They are below.