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/