Amy Balliett, the Seattle resident who launched nationwide protests against Prop 8 last November, was in San Francisco yesterday while the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments to repeal the initiative. After she spoke before the crowd outside city hall, supporters and oppenents of the measure competed for a view of the Jumbotron. Here's her take:

The Yes on 8 people showed up with huge signs (about 8 feet by 4 feet) that had a checked voting box on them next to the words "Traditional Marriage." They had at least 10 of these signs and tried to form a barricade around us. My initial thought was "Wow these signs are pretty damn ambiguous." … My next thought was "We need more signs." So I went to the Walgreens around the corner and bought a ton of poster board and sharpies. I got back to find that the crowd had doubled and the number of pro-gay marriage signs had at least tripled. Our side brought huge 8 x4 signs as well, the difference was that they were creative and unique. Leave it to the gays to make art out of a protest sign. …

Every once in awhile there would be an altercation in the crowd, which mainly started because of signs blocking people's views. The Yes on 8 people would work their way into the crowd and then raise a gigantic sign blocking everyone's view. Then a bunch of No on 8 people would raise up their signs to block the Yes on 8 signs. Everyone trying to watch the Jumbotron would then get pissed and one of us would have to go keep the peace and get everyone to put down their signs.

People also broke up into little groups where Yes and No people would talk and debate. I joined in a few of these and had some amazing conversations with Yes people who believed some really crazy stereotypes. One girl told me that she was there to save her neices and nephews from learning to be gay in elementary school. I asked her if she had any examples of that happening, and she quoted a documentary that was filled with propaganda. When I explained to her that I felt that way about the documentary, she said "But it's a documentary, it has to be true." So I told her who Michael Moore was and explained the subject matter of his documentaries, and she was shocked. She said that it sounds like a bunch of propaganda. I explained that in her reasoning, "it's a documentary, so it has to be true."

Early news reports on the hearing indicate the court may uphold the measure, thereby maintaining a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Damn.

Photo by Wen and Tara on Flickr.