November 15, 2008

Yes On 8 Thugs Take Page Out of Fred Phelps Playbook, Try to Disrupt Funeral in Castro; Christian Street Preachers Run Out of Neighborhood

This could be one incident or two; it’s not clear.

First, I saw this on the 11:00 p.m. news (local NBC affiliate), but I haven’t found any videos or links online: A memorial service was being held tonight in the Castro for someone identified only as “an AIDS activist” (I don’t think it was Hank Walsh, whose memorial was slated for last Monday), and a small group of protesters showed up yelling “Yes on 8! Yes on 8!”

Real classy. Not.

Second: I don’t know if this next story is related, but I do know one thing — it really is “No More Mister Nice Gay” time.

After reading the story, watch the raw footage video on the same page, as fed-up residents run a bunch of “ex-gay” interlopers out of the neighborhood:

Anger Over Prop. 8 Erupts In San Francisco

In San Francisco’s Castro District, people on both sides of the same-sex marriage controversy confronted each other on Friday night, as police tried to keep the peace. …

Members of the gay community said that almost every Friday night, a Christian group meets at the corner of Castro and 18th Streets. They try to convert gays and lesbians into a straight lifestyle.

This Friday night, the message didn’t go over well. Some gays and lesbians reacted by trying to chase the group out of the Castro.

“Their rights were respected,” said Joe Schmitz, an opponent of Prop 8. “They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood.”

San Francisco Police officers in riot gear formed a line and escorted the religious group into a van to safely get them out of the area.

Members of the gay community insisted that their reaction to the Christian group was spontaneous. “It was not an organized thing. We’re tired of it. It’s not religious. It’s not a racial thing. It’s about hate. We’re trying to send a message across the world that we’re standing up and we don’t want this to go on anymore,” said Adam Quintero. …

You know, they — the anti-gay brigades — keep whining about our equality stomping all over their “religious freedom.” They keep whining that our marriages will somehow affect theirs, and their insular little lives. And yet they literally invade our neighborhoods and try to “convert” us to their lifestyle. (I told you it was all about projection, didn’t I?)

Can you imagine the outrage if a bunch of gay people invaded a lily-white “Christian” neighborhood just once, and, living down to all the lies they tell about us, stood on their street corners and tried to “recruit” straights?

About two minutes into the video on the KTVU link above, one of the Castro guys speaks directly into the camera: “It’s our neighborhood! … And we don’t ever want them coming back! Ever! Do you understand that, other Christians? Do you understand that, other Mormons? I’m talking to you people! Yeah, you! Stay out of our neighborhood if you don’t like us! Leave us alone!”

Yeah. What he said.

People, please stay safe tomorrow. I’m not really worried about any of us getting hurt (unless a certain someone loads up his .50-caliber-whatever and/or runs us down with his brake-less car), but I fully expect that the Yes On 8 camp will send trolls into some of the larger protests tomorrow, and try to make us respond with physical violence — or with any reaction that could be construed as “violent” in their twisted little minds. Don’t fall for it.

Oh, yes, if someone gets in my face, I’ll shout them down until they go deaf or burst into tears, whichever comes first. But I know — I know in my gut — that they are going to be there, and they are going to try every trick in the book to make one of us hit back.

Don’t do it. As much as you might want to, don’t do it.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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