Perhapse an attic I shall seek

In 1978 we had a massive candlelight vigil for Harvey Milk, followed by the White Night Riots of 1979 after Dan White's sentencing.

I'm still trying to decide which event should more closely resemble our community's response to the current injustice.

Will Miss Savage grace us with his presence at this meeting, I wonder?

He couldn't be bothered with Wednesday night's meeting because he had tickets to a baseball game. Will he show his face at this meeting? Or does Miss Savage believe his time is too important to waste on community organizing?

Get your priorities in order, Miss Savage.

Maybe that's a tad harsh, N.I., but Savage is, indeed, an icon. We need leaders now, Dan. You're a leader. Please be there for us.

I just realized that the DOMA is unconstitutional, via the 14th Amendment that states that everyone shall be treated equally.

HAHA, Not Impressed (but is a troll). Maybe Dan had those tickets way in advance and could not trade them off. There will be many opportunities to discuss this issue, including the date mentioned in this entry and on the posters. If his tickets cost a ton, I can't be mad at him for using them and skipping one of what will be many meetings.

Maybe a pity party doesn't mean much to a guy who has a real life to attend to.

Your rallies and demos aren't accomplishing a thing. The real action is elsewhere. Dan White still got off (he's dead now, right? Didn't he suicide?)
One thing is true, though; after Harvey Milk was assassinated, SF was never the same. You could almost say in a perverse way that Dan White permanently established the rights of sexual minorities in that city.

Why should ANYONE waste their time at a lame-ass "community meeting"? I can tell you exactly what it will be: A bunch a shrill, half-assed, self-declared activists, repeating a bunch of tired cliches, all with sign language interpretation.

And bad poetry. There's always somebody with bad poetry.

And, if we're truly unfortunate, some dumb musical group.

It will happen, the SGN will report lamely on it, and absolutely nothing will come of it.

btw, just who IS "marriage equality now"? There's no mention on their website of any officers, or anything like that.

Perhaps most tellingly, the meeting seems to consist of "Q&A" after "remarks by our speakers".

The participants of these "lame...pity parties" include the plaintiffs, lawyers, and local politicos involved in the case we were just defeated in.

Some speakers are shrill. Others are eloquent, some are just boring.

Whether or not these lame pity parties "accomplish" anything meaningful by your standards, you should have a little more respect for the people involved, many of whom really are actual activists, not just "self declared" ones.

Sheesh.

as per ms. vel-duray's concern, there will be no "bad poetry."

Maybe this event will provide an opportunity to ask the lawyers who handled the case why they specifically avoided arguing the case on equal protection grounds (which Justice Madsen seemed to indicate might have been a more productive route).

And lay off Dan - in going to the ballgame, he was being a good father and not disappointing his son, who was probably looking forward to it.

Fnarf and David,

Funny.

An insane (ooopss, obviously mentally Ill) twinkie eater accidentally shoots someone and you villify them.

Whereas the mental illness trump card is immediate throiwn in on Fridays shooting.

Nice.....

basically, the fight is now in the legislation's arena.

so if you care about equality,
then contact your legislators.

talk to people around you about the importance of marriage equality.

that's how we'll effect change.

Paul: are you being deliberately obtuse? There's no "mental illness trump card". To listen to you, you'd think I want this Seattle shooter to get off. That's absurd. So is your suggestion that Dan White was "obviously insane" and "accidentally shot someone".

Paul, I have absolutely no idea why you constantly bring non-sequiturs into every discussion then back out before you actually have to account for your questionable reasoning. If you have a point, you seem to thrive on never quite making it.

Whatever your damage is, I'm done with you.

Accidently?!

Dan White may have been an irrational "contents under pressure" hothead and general asshole, but that does not mean he was necessarliy mentally ill. His act was clearly premeditated - he went to city hall with a gun, went into each of their offices and shot them in turn, so please don't make it sound like he was cleaning his gun when it happened or something - and his victims were his two biggest political rivals that that he had longstanding bitterness against due to his own failing political career.

Sorry to take the flame bait, but I'm from SF and I couldn't let "accidently shoots someone" stand.

From Wikipedia: "White took out his gun and shot the Mayor five times at point blank range. At least one of the shots was administered execution-style. White then re-loaded his gun and went down the corridor to Harvey Milk's office. As Milk arose from his seat to greet White, he, too, was shot multiple times at point blank range."

Go away, Paul.

I skipped the community meeting. Walking my dog was a better use of my time. Basically, I want to hear that the marriage equality groups have two or three candidates lined up to hire as full time lobbyists in Olympia and that they are recruiting potential challengers to anti-marriage equality legislators. Anything other than that is pointless.

The event went well - about 100 people, good for short notice, grassy slope, five or six speakers, ten questions - to the point and many good comments.

Theme, dust off, and lets settle in for the long term. Won't be easy and yes, it is bad news. But ....... onward.

To the sour nilhists who sit posting to slog as if it cnaged any opinions .... oh well, you all can write some checks.

There was a call or two for more activism and better messages, as in more mention of love and less of benefits .... as well as money which will be needed for good lobbying in Olympia.

Both Ed and Beth Reise said they would indeed consider civil unions if that is ever on the table .... which as Ed pointed our, we have not the votes for civil unions or marriage in Olympia .... both felt there must be much more community conversation on the issue of civil unions.

Jamie got several big rounds of applause..... this visibility and the fact that the show moves to Capitol City and away from the courts, this might raise his bid for the 43rd seat.

I'm sure it was a fine meeting...but, what about taking to the streets? If there were only 100 in attendance, perhaps we just don't have the numbers.

Uh... would've gone to the meeting, but my father was in town this weekend. Uh... sorry about that.

I guess we don't have the numbers. Maybe there's just something about this issue in particular that doesn't form a cohesive community. Too bad.

I think the marriage issue doesn't have the numbers because marriage itself is a traditional, conservative institution. A lot of people, straight and gay, believe that marriage is too conservative of a lifestyle choice for them, so they are not passionate about the right to marry.

NYT article to this point:

For Some Gays, A Right They Can Forsake
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/fashion/sundaystyles/30MARRIAGE.html?ref=style

OF COURSE Jamie Pedersen was there. Big attention whore. Still not buying his candidacy.