November 9, 2008

Sunday 11/09 DeFrank Center Prop 8 Meeting De-Briefing

So, we went to a meeting, and a pride march broke out.

Don’t expect too much coherence from me right now — I’ve been running on an average of four hours’ sleep a night for the past couple of weeks, and my wife and I just got back from the Billy DeFrank Center, where we (and you) were invited to a “grieve, kvetch, and plan” meeting — that turned into one of the most positive, energizing gatherings you could imagine, climaxing with a spontaneous march through the streets of San Jose (which made the local news).

There were (easy) a couple-three hundred people packed into the DeFrank’s main room, and you couldn’t find a parking space for blocks. I dropped Buffy off to go in while I parked, and when I came in, Jo Kenny (wife of DeFrank political director Gloria Nieto) was introducing Rev. Mike Ellard, senior pastor of MCC San Jose. Rev. Ellard addressed the issue of the so-called “blacks-versus-gays” controversy, reminding everyone that this is exactly what the right wing wants, and they’re loving the way this is dividing the community. So cut it out (my words, not his).

Then he told us about the candlelight vigil tomorrow night, Monday, November 10, at MCC San Jose — details here — which, quite coincidentally, happens to be across the street from a Mormon “meeting house.” (I’m not so sure how much impact that will have, as I think Mormon “Family Home Evening” is Monday — but the news crews will dig it, so that’s excellent.) Rev. Ellard reminded everyone who comes to stay on the MCC’s side of the street. (How he put that seeming admonishment was quite humorous, but I’m not going to detail it here.)

Gloria Nieto spoke briefly about the death threats she’s been getting via email — about 20 were sitting in her inbox as she spoke. Rest assured the police are involved, and the senders are being tracked. She also described one that came in just this morning, which “used the N-word” in saying that “now blacks were going to kill all the white Christians.”

WTF?!

I guess that was some sort of allusion to Barack Obama’s win, but what kind of sick freak would 1) say such a thing, and 2) use that kind of bizarre, deluded, racist crap to target Nieto (whose name and face are very public in the LGBT community) is beyond my comprehension.

A number of people in the audience stood and spoke, impromptu; to my ear, the ones who got the loudest applause and cheers were the straight allies who came to support us. White heterosexuals pledged to do more than they’d done (the recurring theme, among everyone who spoke was essentially, “I’m so sorry for not doing more — I was too caught up in the Obama campaign… but I’m here now, so use me!”), black heterosexuals pledged to work with black communities, Latinos pledged to work with Latino communities, and… Well, this one blew us all away:

There was one straight white woman who stood up with her white husband by her side, who voted Yes on 8…

I have to stop now, and get some food in me, and (I hope) a nap. Buffy can pick up the details from here… and later on, I hope we’ll get up a couple of pictures we took while we were marching, and news footage if I can find some.

Oh, and everyone who’s commented over the past couple of days, forgive me for leaving you hanging — I want to reply to you, and will do my best — there are just so many things to be done, all of them right now, and only so many hours in the day. But I’ll make it up to you ASAP.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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