News from Boone

Itty bitty report from Boone, N.C., reader Kathy Staley:

"fyi: boone participated in the national day of protest..... approx. 40 people walked through ASU campus on a f-ball game day."

First updates start rolling in...

The initial news from Columbia, S.C. from Q-Notes' Contributing Writer Gareth Fenley:

"150 people attended, upbeat crowd, holding posters along Gervais Street in front of the confederate monument at the Capitol, I got a bunch of good quotes. No counter protesters. more later."

Photo at right, Columbia Prop. 8 Protest, photo courtesy Daniel Jones (Facebook)

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Statement from MarriageEqualityUSA (disclosure: I am a member of MEUSA's Advisory Board).

Marriage Equality USA Contacts:
Molly McKay, Media Director – media@marriageequality.org, 510-332-0872
Pamela Brown, Policy Director – policy@marriageequality.org, 510-384-3655

The winds of change are blowing hard and there is electricity in the air.

Today is a national tipping point....all the work we have been doing has helped to get us up to this point and the flashpoint is the loss of Proposition 8. History will look back on this day as the day that the national LGBTI community rose up and said, we are not going back....we will insist on being treated equally under the law, we will insist that our families are treated with fully dignity and constitutional protections under the law....we will not sit back and allow us to be bullied by the popular mob, we will not let others define us as any inferior class of people, we will gather together in all our natural diversity, with our righteous straight allies who get that this isn't only about LGBTI families but on the kind of country we want to be. We will not allow the wall between the separation of church and state to come crumbling down and allow a flood of religious intolerance to change our constitution, we will rise up and rise up and rise up and march forward down the only
path that we have before us...this is the journey to justice, zip up those boots and start marching!

Love and courage to all of us today!!

Molly McKay, Marriage Equality USA Media Director

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Last minute Boone, NC event

I'm sitting in the lobby of Duke's Bryan Student Center in Durham. So far, everything's great at the EqualityNC Conference.

Last night sometime, a Boone Prop. 8 event was planned details below:

Boone, NC
Watauga County Public Library: 140 Queen Street
We convene at 1 pm; we begin our march toward King Street and Rivers Street at 1:30 pm.
Jill Ehnenn, jehnenn@gmail.com; Elizabeth West, elizabethwest@riseup.net
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=34697263350

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Also, a big THANK YOU to Porscha and Lin and Out in Asheville, as well as Bambi at OutImpact.com for coming together to do this joint blog. I'm hoping the coverage here this evening and through tomorrow morning will help to bring everything together. Thanks y'all. ~Matt Comer

Wilmington, NC Prop 8 Protest Tomorrow Information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 14, 2008

Contact: Kati Heffield - (910) 368-8380
Mary Eller - (512) 968-3446

Local gay, lesbian, straight citizens to protest passage of anti-gay constitutional amendments in Arizona, Florida, California

WILMINGTON — A group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and straight citizens will take to the streets of Wilmington to protest the passage of Proposition 8, California’s anti-gay marriage amendment, as well as other anti-gay ballot initiatives in Arkansas, Arizona and Florida.

Every day since Election Day, thousands have protested up and down streets in cities across California, including in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento. A national, grassroots coalition of LGBT activists have followed in their footsteps.

On Nov. 15, 1:30 p.m. EST/10:30 a.m. PST, in large cities and state capitals across the country, Pro-Equality supporters will raise public awareness of the need for LGBT equality in marriage and in other civil rights.

WHAT: Prop. 8 Protest

WHO: LGBT and straight citizens of Wilmington and surrounding areas.

WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008;1:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.

WHERE: 2 Princess St. Federal Building (Water St. Between Princess and Market)

For more information contact:
Kati Heffield - (910) 368-8380
Mary Eller - (512) 968-3446

National Protest Site: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com

Putting my queer shoulder to the wheel...

So, today, I wrote a blog post about my own mixed feelings about tomorrow's protests... I thought I'd add it since MHC posted someone else's opposition to the protests.

Putting my queer shoulder to the wheel…

By Porscha | November 14, 2008

So, I tried for a few days to ignore the JoinTheImpact.com stuff coming through my inbox and across the news desk. I tried. I’m a full-time graduate student - I commute to school two days a week in Johnson City and I spend the entire day there both days. I teach a class of college sophomores and juniors. I have a wife. Two dogs. Three cats. And I work full time as Associate Publisher of OIA. My life is really gay - really queer, actually. In fact, only on the days when I’m at school do I really have conversations with people who are not part of the LGBTQ community. Read the rest...

Protest criticisms

An LGBT leader in Wilmington isn't too pleased with the Prop. 8 protests coinciding with this weekend's EqualityNC Conference and Gala in Durham. Read what he has to say at Matt's InsideSource staff blog.

Columbia joins in on Carolina Prop. 8 protests

by Matt Comer

COLUMBIA — Members of progressive and LGBT organizations and students at the University of South Carolina have stepped up at the last minute to organize an informal protest against Proposition 8.

Part of the nation-wide series of protests organized by JoinTheImpact.com, the Columbia event is hosted by SC Pride, the SC Progressive Network and USC’s BLGSA, among others. It’ll be held at 1:30 p.m. at the South Carolina State House and last for about an hour.

Organizer Beth Sherouse, 26, said she found out Thursday that Charleston had organized event and Columbia had yet to do so. She spoke to a few folks around her area and managed to rouse up some last minute support.

“A lot of people were wanting to do something but not able to go to Charleston,” she told Q-Notes. “It’s going to be a pretty low-key event. It’ll be a silent vigil with people standing outside the state house with signs.”

Read the rest...