Protesting Marriage
by Electric Elliot
On November 15th, 2008 millions Joined the Impact, taking to the streets of most major cities in the US to protest the passing of Proposition 8. Bringing out massive numbers, these protests remained completely peaceful except for strong exchanges of words between protesters and religious fanatics upset that their curbside turf was being marched on. But California’s Prop 8 wasn’t the only bill to pass on election day which denied same-sex couples the right to marry. In Florida, the lesser-publicized Amendment 2 passed with a definitive 62.1% to 37.9%.
Now in Tallahassee, FL a pro-gay rights group called Impact-Florida is planning on another protest, this time against Amendment 2. While their decision to protest is commendable (if not meaningless), where they’re planning on protesting is somewhat questionable.
Love is in the air as Gov. Charlie Crist, a major proponent of Amendment 2, is slated to wed this month. Impact-Florida plans to crash the wedding, calling for its members to don pink shirts, and stand outside Crist’s church on the day of the wedding to sarcastically congratulate him for tying the knot. The protest intends to follow the Governor to his wedding reception and continue to gawk at him maybe with sad puppy faces or something. Spokeswomen of Impact-Florida, Lorna Bracewell hopes that “it will inspire [Crist] and the many Floridians that voted for Amendment 2 to rethink their positions on the question of what constitutes a marriage.”
But is this really the right avenue for protest? It seems that by attacking those in a way that ruins their “special day” because they ruined yours (or your ability to have one) walks the line of violence promoting violence, hate promoting hate, or wedding crashers promoting wedding crashers. What sort of message does this actually send? That gay activists can be as obnoxious and those religious fanatics who crash funerals of veterans or is this a what goes around comes around sort of moment?
Before I go too far into banalities, what do you think? Are these protests warranted, or a bit off message?
photo credit to http://flickr.com/photos/danthewebmaster/
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Crashing the wedding on the level of pro-lifers harassing abortion doctors at their homes: upsetting and harmful to the people being protested. Also, it’s pathetic. And it’s not the point: Crist’s personal marriage, after all, has nothing to do with gay marriage.
They should picket his church instead. THAT’S actually relevant, since churches are the exclusive producers of anti-gay marriage rhetoric.
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December 4th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I think there are some differences here. First, as a politician, you do give up a portion of the public/private life divide that most have. And in this particular case he did come down publically on the side of Amendment 2 prior to the election. As a figurehead in the campaign to get it passed he becomes a viable target for this kind of protest, whereas the Westboro Baptist Church and their protests are in a very different vein.
I don’t think that a protest of this nature is out of line, but I do think it’s a horrible strategy. Regardless of the differences, they’ll elicit enough comparisons to Westboro Baptist and company that the net effect will be bad press resulting in the potential alienation of a portion of that 38%.
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marumaruyopparai Reply:
December 4th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
@Joshua Hiltunen,
I completely agree. A big problem faced by people fighting on the front-lines for issues like gay right is the immensely visceral response provoked by discouraging setbacks. People who demonstrate on behalf of gay rights, animal rights(PETA), and environmental protection(Jeff “Free” Luers lighting SUV’s on fire in Oregon) are often so consumed with pushing their agenda they end up acting out agressively and alienating the exact people they need to reach to have their agenda realized.
Part of me wants to support this action just to stick it to the man but my rational side knows its more than ineffectual it’s actually detrimental. I’m on the fence but if I had to make choice that made sense I’d avoid this kind of demonstration (publically making the gay community of Florida look like a bunch of wedding crashing a-holes is not going to help the gay rights agenda anywhere in the US)
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December 5th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
It’s a waste of time. Issues like this cannot be decided by demonstrations in the streets. These only serve to reinforce entrenched positions. What is needed is open public debate. The next time someone says something about this issue that you disagree with, make a sincere respectful effort to consider a different perspective. Without fail, every state that has considered a marriage amendment (more than 30 now I believe) has approved it. We are living in what has traditionally been an unusually conservative country.
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