Speakers take aim at president as hundreds gather on Cedar Springs in response to Calif. Supreme Court decision upholding marriage ban
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| Protesters march down Cedar Springs Road on Tuesday, May 26 during the Day of Decision Rally. The march went from the Legacy of Love Monument to Throckmorton Mining Co. JOHN WRIGHT/Dallas Voice |
Six months ago, black lesbian activist Chastity Kirven stood in the plaza of Dallas City Hall and led the crowd in a deafening chant of then-President-elect Obama’s campaign mantra, "Yes We Can. Yes We Can."
On Tuesday, May 26, Kirven stood on the patio outside Throckmorton Mining Co. and blasted the Obama administration for allegedly failing to keep the promises he made to the LGBT community.
"I’ve got news for you, President Obama — we’re not going away, we’re here to stay," Kirven told the crowd. "Tell President Obama, it’s not just the GOP that’s on his butt right now. He now has some pissed gays and lesbians who are going to hold him just as accountable. … All I’ve got to say is, I’m tired of you leaving your promises on the nightstand as you walk out the door after you’ve screwed me. Do something. Prove that you can make history to us. Don’t only be the first black president. Give equal rights to every American."
While her remarks were perhaps the most incendiary, Kirven wasn’t the only speaker who took square aim at Obama during Tuesday’s Day of Decision Rally, which drew hundreds to the Cedar Springs strip to protest the California Supreme Court’s decision earlier in the day upholding Proposition 8.
It was by far the city’s largest gay-rights demonstration since the City Hall rally of Nov. 15, with both being part of coordinated national efforts in response to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in the country’s most populous state.
"It’s the first time a Constitution has been used to take away rights rather than grant them," said protester Bob McCranie of Carrollton, referring to the fact that some 18,000 same-sex couples were married in California before Prop 8 passed.
Although Tuesday’s long-awaited Day of Decision Rally wasn’t scheduled to begin until 7 p.m.— seven hours after the court’s ruling was announced — McCranie was one of dozens of people who by 6:30 p.m. had gathered around the Legacy of Love Monument at Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road.
They waved protest signs and Pride flags, cheered at honking motorists and chanted things like "What do we want? Equal rights. When do we want them? Now," "Obama, Obama, let Mama marry Mama," "Not the church, not the state, we alone decide our fate," and "Out of the bars, into the streets, we will not accept defeat."
The crowd then marched west down the middle of Cedar Springs Road to TMC, briefly blocking traffic in an impressive display that conjured up images of the annual Pride parade, except in reverse.
"I don’t think that it could have gone off any better," said Blake Wilkinson of Queer Liberaction, which organized the Dallas Day of Decision Rally. "The energy was high throughout all of it. People just organically took to the streets like it was something very natural to do, and I was very happy that the Dallas Police Department Police Department didn’t give us any grief over doing that."
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| JOHN WRIGHT/Dallas Voice Participants in Tuesday’s rally protesting the California Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8 chant and wave signs at passing cars from the Legacy of Love monument at the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road. Hundreds people attended the rally, with protesters marching from the monument down Cedar Springs Road to the patio of TMC to listen to speakers, many of whom criticized the Obama administration for failing to act on LGBT equality issues. |
Wilkinson added that he was pleased many of the speakers who addressed the crowd through a megaphone on the patio of TMC focused their remarks on the president, who among other things pledged his support during last year’s campaign for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and allows states to ignore same-sex marriages performed in other states.
"I thought that was great that people were still not too blindsided by hope to open their eyes and see what’s going on, that he’s taken a serious step back," Wilkinson said. "It’s rightfully frustrated a lot of people, and I think people should be calling Obama out."
Longtime local gay activist John Selig, one of the speakers at the rally, told the crowd he’s a lifelong Democrat who gave money to the Obama campaign last year despite the fact that he was unemployed at the time.
"We now have strong control of both houses of Congress, we have a president — all of them understand that prejudice against us is wrong, and all of them so far have done nothing. Nothing," Selig screamed, his voice crackling through the megaphone.
"If not now, when? We made huge mistake during the Clinton years. We said, ‘Let’s just be quiet and they’ll take care of us.’ Nobody is going to take care of us. … We have to be the squeaky wheel."
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Dallas City Councilwoman Angela Hunt, a straight ally of the LGBT community, told the crowd that while she adores Obama and deeply admires him as a politician, it’s time to hold him accountable.
"We’ve got to make sure he follows through on his promises and commitments to this community, and I’ll be there with you," said Hunt, who joined other speakers in urging people to inundate Congress and the White House with letters and phone calls.
"We have to let them know that we vote, and they’re going to lose our vote if they don’t stick with this community," Hunt said.
Mike Mckay, executive director of Resource Center Dallas, suggested that it’s time for Obama to "get some cojones."
McKay served as facilitator for a recent meeting of LGBT leaders from around the country at a DFW Airport hotel where they drafted "The Dallas Principles," which call on the Obama administration to take immediate action on behalf of equality.
"I thought I would never quote Ronald Reagan at a
gay and lesbian rally, but when he stood in Berlin and said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down these walls’ — let me just say to Mr. Obama: Tear down these walls," McKay said.
E-mail wright@dallasvoice.com
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 29, 2009.
–“It’s the first time a Constitution has been used to take away rights rather than grant them,†said protester Bob McCranie of Carrollton—
Um, did Bob miss that lesson on the 18th US Amendment creating Prohibition? This important issue not withstanding, please be accurate in your US history.
(PS, ever notice the 18th amendment took away drinking and the 21st restored it.. and the drinking age used to be 18 and now it’s 21 … strange coincidence)
While I applaud those organizing the protest, why is it most (90%+) of our protest take place in Oak Lawn where most everyone there supports what we are protesting? The idea behind a protest/march is more visibility about our complaint in areas that need educating and not in a location where people can sip their lattes and politely applaud something they already know. These protest should take place through out downtown locations (Pearl and Ross Ave., The West End, AA Center (home of WFAA), or at City Hall itself to get more visibility and a chance for city organizers/elected officials to interact with our cause.
I understand there are issues about permits (45 days), traffic (possible arrest for obstructing traffic), etc. but what good is a protest when you fail to make people outside of Oak Lawn aware of these issues?
Donald, I totally agree that this message needs a broader audience. Before we can reach mainstream America, we’ve got to organize ourselves first. We need to show our own community that we are uniting and that we plan to fight. One of the chants was “Out of the bars, into the streets, we will not accept defeat”. We had a great turn out for this rally but it could have been better if people would put down their martini glass and pick up a sign. This is our first objective.
“Out of the bars and into the streets” they said as they marched from the street to the patio of a bar. Take your protests where they will be seen by someone that is not gay or lesbian and stop associating everything you do with a bar if you want to get heard.
He is to busy bowing down to the king of Saudi Arabia..
Dallas’ Day of Decision Rally was a well organized, well attended rally coordinated by just a handful of activists. It made many of the evening newscasts as well as clips on youtube. Congrats to the organizers. Let’s keep the momentum going.
Am I speaking in French or something? If we do not unite our community first, we will not win. I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about that. Every other minority community except the gay community figured it out. If we don’t give a damn about our own rights then how da hell are we suppose to get the rest of the country to care?
Tisha,
Some of us are working on that. In fact, there is conversation (I am sure yet again) to start some collaborative work within the LGBTQA community.
We need your help, all of you who have commented on this, to make this happen. If you don’t like the location of the rally, step up and help us coordinate the next one. If you want us to ban together, step up and help us.
We need us all to be a part of this!!
President Obama has been in office less than 6 months and the gay community is already turning on him.
How in the world is a Supreme Court decision in California Mr. Obama’s fault?
What do you expect? For Mr. Obama to put the economy-war-health care on the side? I am an openly proud gay man but its amazing that the gay community gave more respect and patience to Presidents Bush (both) and Clinton than Mr. Obama.
I am still a proud Obama supporter.
AMAZED
No one was trashing Obama, and no one who spoke at the rally appeared to be turning on him per say. It is however time for our community to start holding his feet to the fire. While he is probably the greatest hope our community has had in a president .. well EVER… he is still a politician. He has made our people many many promises, and we have to keep those in his direct line of sight.
You say put the “economy-war -healthcare on the side” like we should wait? Like maybe now is not the time for us to be pushing issues like marriage equality? I will remind you that the right time for justice is ALWAYS RIGHT NOW!
The Rally, by the way, was a huge success.. hundreds of folks came out and the energy level was amazing! One of the positives of doing a rally of this size IN our own community is it was able to speak to folks it would have otherwise missed. What I mean is that there are those few committed Dallas LGBT folks who would absolutely go downtown for a rally.. we have had similar numbers in front of city hall.. BUT as Tisha said.. we need to fix the issues in our own community first, for some of these folks who are perfectly happy sipping a latte or shopping on Cedar Springs and letting news of a rally seem like a fairy tale.. or for those too cynical to believe that this kind of activism is really possible in Dallas- seeing a Rally this size and this energetic.. one that actually stopped traffic and took over the strip- to these folks this rally spoke volumes and possibly opened a few eyes.
Let’s try not to get so bent out of shape about how we spoke or where we spoke or who spoke.. let’s pat ourselves on the back as a community for SPEAKING.. that is the point and that is what we did.
Checking back in on the discussion and a couple of comments.
Tisha – I understand you are saying. I just don’t think large scale support will happen yet in Texas and here is why. I have this very discussion with friends on several occasions. Their reasoning for the lack of involvement is: It’s California, it’s Vermont, it’s New Hampshire, and it does not impact or make a difference to me in Texas. They state that until it becomes a federal issue, Texas will not overturn the law that was passed in ’05. I try to explain that every state victory is a step closer to changing national perception and the chance to get a federal law passed. Many of them are cynical and do not see this (Federal Argument) happening in their lifetime. Note: Most of us are 40s to 50s crowd so approximately 30 – 40 years left for our lifetime. I happen to disagree with them. If argued properly before the Supreme Court based on the 1st Amendment, Freedom of Religion clause and using the case Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, 512 U.S. 687 (1994), Justice David Souter, writing for the majority, concluded that “government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion”, there should be overwhelming support. As well, The 14th Amendment, Section 1 states “…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”. If, IF, the scheduled federal argument goes before the Supreme Court (highly unlikely the Supreme Court will accept and hear the case but I’m hoping) and they stick to these 2 points, there should be no way a sitting Supreme Court Justice would not rule in our favor.
Daniel – Nor should anyone be trashing Obama. The man has been in office for 134 days as of 6/3/09. He has promised us he will work on our behalf to get things done. So far, he has publicly declared June LGBT month, the first time for a President to include Bisexual and Transgendered in the declaration. He is investigating what it will take to overturn DADT with the Pentagon. He has stated that he still supports civil unions and federal rights for same-sex couples but not same-sex marriage. He has publicly declared his intention to sign the U.N. proclamation (that the former president refused to sign) that calls for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. But there are bigger things that he has to handle at this point to win the public’s confidence and support in order to help us. The economy should be the first thing each day on his agenda for the 1st 9 months. Reinstating financial safe guards that were eliminated from the previous regime, excuse me, “administration”. Working out a compromise to get us less involved in a unjustified war based on lies while maintaining the progress we have made on the war on terrorist. Keeping N. Korea and Iran in check. If any of these priorities were to fail, what good would it be for us to have our rights we are seeking if we cannot afford them or worried about another war?
Yes, the rally was a good continuation to show our spirit about these issue. And yes, it is disheartening to see the lack of enthusiasm in the community with their mindset of “this does not affect us in Texas”. And everyone on here has made good point. Daniel for acknowledging not when or where but for speaking out, Tisha for pointing out that the community need to be fixed first, Bill for reiterating that we need to be visible in other communities and not just our community.
If you look at how much we, the LGBT community, have accomplished in the past 40 years since Stonewall, especially in the past 9 years when Vermont took the first brave and historical step to recognize same-sex civil unions, then you should see that this decade alone has been the fastest and most progressive in our history. We, me included, are now a society of instant gratification, especially the Y generation, but, on this issue, we need to relax a bit and give it time for greater acceptance while maintaining our diligence and perseverance in the public eye. I agree “…the right time for justice is ALWAYS RIGHT NOW” but we have one shot at this to get it accepted at the federal level. I would rather take the time to make sure all of our i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed as well as making sure we have the right court in place to ensure passage rather than having that one iffy vote that could change their mind and interpretation of the Constitution at the last minute.
A big hearty thanks to each and every one of you from me and my partner for keeping the fight going. I hope to meet more of you at the next event.
i read the article and dont really agree with all this hoopla… i mean he hasnt been in office very long and ur gonna start blasting him bc he didnt turn around and change the world in just a few short months… i think Blake and his lil posse is ridiculous and they need to calm down. Honestly…. if u want to be treated equal… why not start with baby steps and work on getting businesses offering domestic partner benefits like hotels and Airlines do… that is a small step to a bigger solution… is he that bored with his life to wanna come into Dallas and stir up trouble? Why dont he worry about the bigger things in life that are more important? Altho it is kinda fun listening and reading about all the little stunts the lil freak is working on. Seriously?! Go whine somewhere else….
Thank you Amazed. My biggest turn off at the protest was those turning on Obama. He will come through, I know it, because he told me so. So I for one hope ,all who are so impatient with the best hope we have ever had in Washington, you get to eat you words and your anger driven words. Obama is your president, you helped elect him, give him a chance for God’s sake.