2008 Woodie Awards
Chico represented at state Capitol rally
By: Earl Parsons
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: Online Exclusives
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Nov. 24, 2008
SACRAMENTO - More than 1,000 gay rights supporters gathered Saturday along the steps of the state Capitol to express their disdain for the passage of Proposition 8.
In the sea of signs rising and receding with the tide of applause, Chico was represented in plain sight.
Paradise residents Dayle Deer and Michael Akridge floated a sign with the word "Chico" towering vertically over the top of the crowd. On the other side, "My gay dad has three kids, one of each."
Deer and Akridge attended the rally with Families for Equality, a group formed after the election to demonstrate support for gay marriage in Butte County.
Both members of Families for Equality, the two have been in a relationship together for three years, but they didn't want to get married, Akridge said while marching with the crowd around the Capitol to the din of chants and honking car horns.
Speakers included gay rights activists Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, the couple who sued the state in 2004 after being denied a marriage license. The case overturned the ban on gay marriage initiated by Proposition 22 in 2000.
Tyler said that Proposition 8 supporters are overreacting about a vandalized Mormon church in nearby Orangevale. On Nov. 8, the words 'No on 8' were found spray-painted on the church's property.
"You know what the worst thing of all is coming from these bigots? They're saying that we are violating them," she said.
Tyler said she thinks that it was more likely a pro-Prop 8 group that did it to garner sympathy points.
"It is far easier to wash the paint stain off a church than it is to wash the stain that they left on the Constitution of California," she said. "That's like when somebody kicks you and then yells, 'Ow, you're hurting my leg.'"
The acts of vandalism and threats of violence toward church members only serve to bolster support against same-sex marriage, said Don Grundmann of the American Warrior Ministry, a Christian group in support of Proposition 8. Other supporters of the initiative stood across the street with signs that said, "A moral wrong cannot be a civil right."
"The people of our state will see the reality that the real hatred is on the No on 8 crowd," he said.
After Tyler introduced Gloria Allred, the high-profile attorney that represented her, Tyler and Olson raised clenched hands in the air as drums pounded Allred's arrival.
Citing the state Supreme Court's 4-3 decision on May 15, Allred paused for the audience to shout "Thank you Supreme Court." She then swapped the chorus to "We shall overcome" when speaking about the subsequent case filed after Proposition 8 passed.
"The electorate made the right to marry a popular whim instead of the inalienable right it is held to be," she said.
Families for Equality member James Temple said calling everyone against the initiative a "bigot" serves against the cause of marriage equality.
"Calling names and throwing fits isn't helping our part," he said with a rainbow flag draped over his neck.
Deer also felt that name-calling is counter-productive, but said it might help people recognize a different perspective.
"Pointing out to them a bigoted point of view at least might make somebody try to have some self-reflection," he said.
Tyler Johnson, a member of Families for Equality and Temple's partner, believes that Proposition 8 passed because of the argument that it would force the teaching of gay marriage in schools, an argument he said is misleading and "made people feel scared."
"A lot of people that are against gay marriage don't really care if you're gay yourself, but they don't want their kids learning about it," he said.
Massachusetts already teaches gay marriage in the schools said Grundmann of American Warrior Ministry. Proposition 8 protected children in California from having homosexuality taught to them.
"It's extremely important for the homosexual community to attain marriage in order to attack the schools," he said. "They can't get what they want through the ballot box, so they're going to try through the courts."
Comedian Margaret Cho eventually approached the stage to the uproarious sound of motorcycles in the distance courtesy of San Francisco group Dykes on Bikes.
"I love the sound of the bikes revving," she said. "It's like a vibrator on wheels."
Cho, who said she only learned how to play guitar eight days ago, performed a song protesting the ban on gay marriage. Cho flexed her knee in tune with each strum of the guitar as she made reference to the Church of Latter-Day Saints' funding of Proposition 8.
"They try to deny their polygamy," she sang. "Mormons, go fuck yourselves."
Earl Parsons can be reached at
eparsons1@mail.csuchico.edu
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