Activists protest Prop 8

Several hundred people crowded around the building housing the California Supreme Court on the morning of May 26. The six-to-one decision upholding Prop 8, the ban on same-sex marriage passed by California voters in November, immediately set the crowd in motion.

Demonstrators blocked traffic in San Francisco to protest Prop 8, the law banning same-sex marriage. WW photo: Joan Marquardt

Hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and progressive supporters of same-sex marriage and equal rights marched past City Hall and into the intersection of Van Ness and Grove, stopping traffic on a major thoroughfare for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. Chanting, “They say get back! We say fight back!” and other slogans, the protesters formed a huge circle and sat down in an act of civil disobedience.

Almost 175 people were eventually arrested, cited and released over the afternoon, while hundreds more milled about the intersection in support. They wore T-shirts reading, “Separate is not equal,” and carried signs stating, “We all deserve the freedom to marry.”

By evening rush hour, many more outraged San Franciscans came after work and joined the thousands who rallied at City Hall and then marched in the street to the downtown Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in the Yerba Buena Gardens park.

New York, June 1. WW photo: Marsha Goldberg

While listening to speeches, some in the crowd took exception to the aggression by San Francisco cops against an African-American woman who had stepped off the curb where the police didn’t think she should have. As cops attempted to put her into a police van that had rushed to the scene, the crowd moved around the police and chanted, “Let her go, let her go!”

Cops grabbed her and held her face-down while she screamed in pain. The van left the scene, but when the woman was pulled to her feet and led away, the crowd started chanting, “March! March!” With that, a large portion of those in the park walked back onto the street and marched away, eventually ending up in the largely LGBT Castro neighborhood.

On May 30, many more gathered in the Central Valley city of Fresno to further protest the California Supreme Court decision. About 100 same-sex marriage supporters gathered in Selma, Calif., in the morning and were joined by more and more marchers as they walked the 14.5 miles to the Fresno City Hall, joining thousands rallying for same-sex marriage civil rights.

Some of the demonstrators noted the positive influence of the original Selma, Ala., civil rights marches in the 1960s, when African Americans set the example by taking to the streets for their rights. The oppression of African Americans and other people of color, especially those who are LGBT, has historically been greater, and many in the LGBT movement draw inspiration from the victories fought for and won during the 20th century.