They could have had it so easy.
They could have held on to 47 states and laughed as we were happy with the occasional victory here and there spread out over the next 30 years, maybe never getting our rights in some states.
But it wasn't enough for them. They had to come to California and wage a campaign of lies and hate to strip us of our rights in one of the few places we were lucky enough to have them.
Well, patience isn't enough for me now, and it's not enough for the thousands of gays, lesbians, and fair-minded Californians who have taken to the streets in the hours since the shock of the Proposition 8 passage and the removal of our basic rights.
Why are we out here? It's not to get Even. It's to get Equal.
I was walking through the airport in San Francisco on Wednesday night, fresh off a long flight. I knew as I got on the plane that the results were looking bad. When I got off the plane 11 hours later it was clear we'd experienced a stunning rebuke. I was walking around in a daze, and experienced a moment that I hadn't faced since junior high school. I saw a cute guy and gave him a smile before I suddenly felt a wave of shame and that I wasn't allowed to do that anymore--that who I was wasn't ok again.
It lasted just a few seconds, but the same could be said for the initial jolt of a massive earthquake. The aftershocks haven't stopped yet. Before the hour was out, I had changed my flight home to L.A. and was in a cab headed to a rally at San Francisco City Hall. There I found a couple of thousand of my closest friends going through the same thing. That night, we just lit candles, sang songs, even held hands just to grieve a little. It helped. I felt strong, not ashamed.
The next afternoon, I got word of the demonstration at the Mormon church in Westwood. Again, within in an hour, I was there. This time we were larger in number and were finding our voice. We marched around that massive eyesore of a church and let out some anger before we realized they weren't the ones we needed to convince. We took off to the West to let the city know what had happened to us and what we wanted (Equality) and when we wanted it (Now).
It was always peaceful, except for the one guy who jumped out of his truck and attacked one of us. Even then we had cool heads amongst us who held back our anger to let the police handle it and let us continue with our message. We fanned out across the city, yeah we stopped traffic. Yeah, it took a lot of people 3 hours to get home last night. Sorry, it's going to take me a lot more hours than that to get to my rights, and we got the word out.
I don't ever intend to feel that shame again. I don't ever want another person to feel that way again. We're here and we're already equal, it's just a matter of correcting this little problem where our government doesn't realize yet.
So, I will remain active until the fair-minded are aware that this is unfair.
I will remain active until I forget the shame I felt on Wednesday.
I will remain active until marriage equality is a reality for all Americans.
Hate won the wrong battle. Hate won it the wrong way. The time for slow evolutionary change is gone. It's time for this to be settled. I look forward to working with hundreds of thousands of you across the country to get it settled. I'll see you in L.A.. I'll see you in Sacramento. I'll see you in Washington.
First and foremost, I'll see as many Angelenos as you can get the word out to in Silverlake at Sunset Junction this Saturday night at 6:00pm.
Thanks for listening and thanks for your help.
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