In a sea of bright colors and odd shaped picket signs saying “love, not h8”, close to a thousand people crammed together in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill in Seattle on Nov. 15.
The Anti-Proposition 8 Rally, brought together by Seattle Central Community College student Kyler Powell, was a march through Seattle’s Capitol Hill area down to Westlake Center to protest California’s newly passed Proposition 8, a bill banning same sex marriage.
Supporters of same sex marriage found this to be a loss of civil rights, while supporters of Prop 8 viewed it as a change back to how marriage should truly be.
Powell’s reason for creating the rally was to stand up for people he felt had been wronged.
“I’m gay, yes, but I’m also part of the Church of Latter-day Saints. I found it to be the worst thing ever when I heard that $20 million was raised in churches around the United States just to be sent to California to be used in support of Prop. 8,” Powell stated on his Facebook blog three weeks ago. Powell wasn’t the only one with an opinion.
Speakers for the rally included King County Executive Ron Sims, State Senator Ed Murray, State Senator Joe McDermott, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Representative Jamie Pedersen, City Council member Sally Clark, Connie Watts – ERW Executive Director, Ben Vogt, Charlene Strong, Pastor David Strong, Craig Darling, Trace Peters, Wendy Reynolds, and Rabi Michael Latz.
As was stated by Charlene Strong, “almost 1,138 rights were stripped from partners in California. Most people just thought they were banning gay marriage, but they didn’t understand that the fine-print and the bill itself held so much that partners were stripped of almost every right known for couples.”
Mayor Greg Nickels also found it to be “a hateful measure that shouldn’t have been on the ballot.” In an effort to “promote equality for everyone in the Seattle area”, Nickels stated that in Seattle city limits, Nov. 15 would now be Marriage Equality Day.
Senator Joe McDermott, an “out-of-the-closet” Senator, stated: “Back when I first got into politics, the one thing you could do was be honest about your sexuality. Today, the one thing you can do is be honest about your rights.”
Ben Vogt also said what most signs were stating at the rally: “We should change laws of church to the laws of man. Our forefathers made a point of stating the separation of church and state, yet here we are, having to fight a time when church and state came together.”
Rabbi Michael Latz also stated his reason for being there “was not in spite of religion, but because of it. I’m standing up for my rights against bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Let’s all keep going.” Rabbi Latz said he felt that the measure was something that shouldn’t have been passed due to the fact that it did not prove love for everyone, but hate against homosexual partners.
As also stated by David Strong, “The Bible states to love everyone, yet here we are, creating more tension than anything else.”
On the other side of the spectrum, six religious anti-gay groups at the Westlake Center Rally were standing inside the masses of pickets, screaming and yelling that anti-prop 8 supporters would go to hell due to their lifestyle choices.
Only one of these men took the time and effort of not screaming above the crowd, but to listen to their questions, then answer as best as he could.
When a woman in the crowd asked him where it said in the Bible that woman should not lay with another woman, the man simply stated that there is not a scripture that says that.
The five other groups, when faced with the same question, stated a quote about a pit of fire.
Churches always have had the choice in not performing a marriage ceremony for any reason.
Newsweek also covered a story on same-sex marriage and how supporters of Proposition 8 have the choice of letting partners truly in love be married, or have the opposing choice of letting them perform fornication instead. Most churches find this to be a greater sin than homosexuality, the articles said.