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Thursday, October 18, 2012

News Anti-Gay Marriage Group Puts on Another Underwhelming Rally

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 4:35 PM

Posted by news intern Chelsea Kellogg

Preserve Marriage Washington, the organization trying to block gay marriage in Washington State, organized another awkward midweek rally at Pratt Park on 19th Avenue and Yesler Street, in the Central District.

I arrived at 11:30 to find a handful of pastors with red Reject 74 lapel pins on, wrapping cables and packing up the event. Two or three green "Approve Ref 74" signs bobbed at the fringes of the park, and some kids squealed from the playground on the far side. The 10:30 A.M. rally, which apparently did not last even an hour, targeted communities of color and featured an African American pastor. Sources at the rally say the audience was primarily elderly Asian-Americans. Pastors rattled off predictable, debunked anti-gay talking points—that gays are taking away their rights, that bathrooms will have to be unisex after that law is put in place—to a crowd of about 70 people.

This rally was organized by Pastor Randy Leskovar and Pastor Victor Langford, two of the religious leaders who spoke at last week's poorly publicized Reject 74 rally. "This is a rally to share our commitment with communities of color to reject R-74," said Pastor Langford, who estimated the crowd to be about 150 people. After looking at documentation of the event there's no way they had half that number, though.

Pastor Langford repeated more of the familiar Reject talking points: "Marriage is the union of a man and a woman since the beginning of time. [Gays] aren't gaining any legal rights, they already have domestic partnerships. This isn't just about them, it affects everyone when they change the definition of marriage." Snap. It must be Halloween with all these scare tactics.

Counter-protestors rushed over to the park, but many showed up after the rally was already over. Austin Anderson, who lives across the street, scrambled to get home when he got word of the rally. "To have this happen across the street from where I live is a slap in the face," he said. Anderson is planning to marry his fiancé, Jared, if R-74 passes. "I think [Preserve Marriage Washington] is reaching out to the black religious community here and hoping church folks will come out against it," he added.

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Why would gay people want unisex bathrooms?

Posted by madcap on October 18, 2012 at 4:43 PM

Stop capitalizing "Pastor." You're not writing in German.

Posted by The CHZA on October 18, 2012 at 4:45 PM

my partner just got home and said he'd heard on the radio that the 'counter protesters' behaved badly, tearing down signs and just being jerks.

Why is it that just before a vote the idiot 'supporters' of our side start doing incredibly stupid things? Protesting them makes them important, attacking them makes them martyrs.

Posted by Oshtur Vishanti on October 18, 2012 at 4:46 PM

@1 - That may be the best argument I've heard all day. The best thing about the men's room is the high incidence of men.

Posted by MacCrocodile

on October 18, 2012 at 4:50 PM

The people for R-74 were so disrespectful, rude and loud, even I was embarassed. I know you want to live homosexual lifestyle with all the rights of hetersexuals, but do you have to be so nasty about. It was a TOTAL turn off. Please at least hear others who don't agree with you. We have heard YOU loud and clear, now give someone else a turn.

Posted by Over It Now on October 18, 2012 at 4:56 PM

A small journalistic suggestion, Intern: if you're going to post the names of these particular men of the cloth, get the names of their churches and put them in the story as well. This will have two effects: the pious twerps will kvell at seeing their church's name in the paper, and people reading The Stranger will know if their neighborhood church is doing its best to screw them.

Posted by DonServo on October 18, 2012 at 4:57 PM

@1 Gays don't want that, but if you take gender out of the constitution, a biproduct of doing so would be that the constitution no longer differentiates between sexes then no one can ever do it ever again.

I think is how they frame that.

It's one of the crazier fucking theories but yeah, it would apparently be an unintended consequence that hurts everyone...

Posted by Pick1 on October 18, 2012 at 5:02 PM

Thank you Oshtur. I totally agree. You don't have to be mean, rude and nasty. I was totally embarassed by the behavior. If you want people to try to understand your position, can you at least listen to what is being said. The violence is not what I want to see. And it was just that, VIOLENCE . I am starting to get a bit concerned that R-74 supporters are a bunch of thugs and I don't want my children to think that is how people behave if you don't agree them. You are better than that. Even if R-74 wins, we still lose in the long run.

Posted by Over It Now on October 18, 2012 at 5:10 PM

I am concerned that they are trying to provoke a reaction from the counter protestors that might bring a negative light to the pro-campaign. The vote will be so close that any bad behavior well publicized could make a difference. I think somebody should make this known to the to the counterprotesters.

Posted by dbgill56 on October 18, 2012 at 5:11 PM

Which was it? Were the counter-protesters "loud, rude & disrespectful", or were they "violent"? The former doesn't necessarily imply the latter.

Posted by COMTE

on October 18, 2012 at 5:30 PM

I was told that signs were torn down with one female interviewed moronically saying "if they have the right to put them up I have the right to take them down"

Posted by Oshtur Vishanti on October 18, 2012 at 5:46 PM

@ 6, actually that's a great suggestion. Pastor Victor Langford was formerly of St. Mark's Lutheran but is now retired. Also Pastor Randy Leskovar of Cavalry Chapel West Seattle, though I doubt anyone who goes his church reads The Stranger.

Posted by Unpaid Intern on October 18, 2012 at 5:59 PM

The same moronic "unisex bathroom" argument was used in the early seventies to defeat the equal rights amendmend. Can't these idiots come up with something new?

Posted by imbecile on October 18, 2012 at 6:42 PM

@3, 5, 8 & 11: Pictures or it didn't happen. If your partner is so het up (no pun intended), let him or her give us at least an eyewitness account without filtering it through you (or the classic 'I heard that...') And we thank you for your "concern".

Posted by DonServo on October 18, 2012 at 7:59 PM

Whoops@#3 etc: I didn't notice that your "partner...heard on the radio" about the horrible behavior of teh gayz. Forget the bit about eyewitness accounts, then. Thanks for playing.

Posted by DonServo on October 18, 2012 at 8:28 PM

2

stop capitalizing CHZA.

there are no capitals in written Asshole.

Posted by it's not Chelsea's fault you are impotent and flaccid on October 18, 2012 at 8:32 PM

@13: Hey, it worked the first time...

Posted by DonServo on October 18, 2012 at 8:39 PM

13

why?

it worked pretty good then......

Posted by of course, imbeciles ARE jealous of idiots..... on October 18, 2012 at 8:39 PM

10

they could be both.....

Posted by take your bipolar meds. on October 18, 2012 at 8:41 PM

This is so sad.

The Girls all getting their hopes up and all.

Washington votes to recognize gay "marriage"
but
BOOM!
in the same election America elects Mitt
and
before you know it
the US Constitution is amended to define marriage as
man-woman
and
POW!
Camelot is over.....

Some judge comes along
and tells you to shove your gay "marriage" up your ass.

Judicial Activism.

total bitch, that.....

Posted by Eat Drink and Be Married!........for tomorrow we annul. on October 18, 2012 at 8:43 PM

what?
you girls have never seen the HomoFascists BrownShirts in action before?
you know, Hitler (also gay) recruited homosexuals to be in the SS because they were the most evil creatures in Nazi Germany...

Posted by It's a Fact. We heard it on CNN..... on October 18, 2012 at 8:55 PM

@20: Need a tissue? I hope you didn't get any on your keyboard.

Posted by venomlash on October 18, 2012 at 10:58 PM

#1, the trannies want unisex bathrooms, not the gays.

As for the weak rally, the real rallies will be held in the churches for the next three Sundays, and they will be anything but weak.

Posted by Mister G on October 18, 2012 at 11:22 PM

Oh, gosh. Gosh darn. You blew your cover, there, @23, and it was working just swell!

Posted by Jimmy Stewart on October 18, 2012 at 11:32 PM

#24, what was my "cover?"

Posted by Mister G on October 18, 2012 at 11:34 PM

22

Watch your back, Venomwhore.

The homosexuals are just waiting for a chance to stick a shiv in it....

Kristallnacht and all.

Did you know that the killing of Ernst vom Rath (which was the pretense for the pogrom) there were claims that vom Rath was a homosexual, and that Grynszpan was intending to use this claim in his defence at the trial by implying that Rath had seduced him. Joseph Goebbels had been intending to turn the trial into Nazi propaganda about Jewish conspiracy, but the homosexuality accusations threatened to humiliate the Nazis. Goebbels wrote that "Grynszpan has invented the insolent argument that he had a homosexual relationship with... vom Rath. That is, of course, a shameless lie; however it is thought out very cleverly and would, if brought out in the course of a public trial, certainly become the main argument of enemy propaganda."
Rath's brother was convicted of homosexual offences and there were allegations that vom Rath was treated for rectal gonorrhoea at the Berlin Institute of Radiology. As a result of the potential embarrassment the trial was indefinitely postponed.

You just can't be too careful......

Posted by Rectal Gonorrhoea . that's nasty...... on October 19, 2012 at 6:45 AM

@26: OH NO. A German diplomat under the Nazi regime who was killed by a Jewish dude and whose death was used as antisemitic propaganda may have been gay. Welp, I guess that proves that gays are Nazis.
Also, "pogrom" does not mean what you think it does.

Posted by venomlash on October 19, 2012 at 6:52 AM

@25: I think 24 took the tone of your post to mean that you are not what you claim to be. Of course it could just be that you are grumpy because you haven't had your coffee, and you fear over confidence on the part of marriage equality supporters.

Posted by Lissa on October 19, 2012 at 8:06 AM

@23 If public bathrooms, locker rooms and the like, were designed to be unisex, it would actually take some complex issues off the table as we move towards full equality. I imagine people like Kristi Holterman would find this more comforting than Colleen Francis would.

Posted by Stranger That Evergreen College Pool Issue Escaped Notice on October 19, 2012 at 9:17 AM

So.... You showed up to cover an event after it was over?

The most laughable part is trying to cover it up with, "the 10:30 rally... which apparently did not last even an hour..."

God knows we've all been there, ten minutes to deadline, polishing that turd like a madman. It may have 'worked' this time, in that someone let it squeeze out into this shitty post, but if you continue in journalism, be aware: some readers and ALL good editors read between the lines.

And shame on you, Stranger, for letting her get away with this shit and calling it 'training.'

Posted by Anonymous Commenter on October 19, 2012 at 10:24 AM

#28, I am voting for R-74, but anyone who thinks the sidewalk rallies against it are important is deluding themselves. This one will be fought in the freeway megachurches, and the in-city Mars Hill congregations.

Posted by Mister G on October 19, 2012 at 1:26 PM

I think you all should be careful making threats to the african-american community or seeking opportunities to list churches, or other personal information. That sets a dangerous example, will end up stirring the black community and call attention that will not help your cause.

Posted by relax on October 22, 2012 at 7:00 PM