Yesterday afternoon, thousands of people gathered at City Hall to protest Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage. While there was a Prop 8 protest earlier this week outside the Manhattan Mormon Temple, yesterday's event was coordinated with many others across the nation and organized by Join the Impact.
The NY Times reports, "Speakers painted the fight over Proposition 8 as another test of a movement that began with the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York in 1969, survived the emergence of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, and has since made enormous strides in societal acceptance, whether in television shows or in antidiscrimination laws." One of the NYC organizers Heath Tucker said, "My goal in having this particular protest was actually start, to be the spark for, the next great civil rights movement in the United States."
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn mentioned what will happen here, "We need to, and will in the winter when the state legislature goes back into session, pass a resolution urging the passage of same-sex marriage in Albany." And here's video of the Gay Men's Chorus singing the Star-Spangled Banner:
The Times also had an article about how the Mormons "tipped the balance" in helping Proposition 8 pass. And you can see photos from our sites in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Boston and Seattle.
