Gay Rights Rally at The State Capitol

Left: The initial goal was for a turnout of 10,000. The numbers were a bit less - I guessed about 4,000. I'm surprised at the Sacramento Bee's estimate: between 1,500 and 1,800, which seems low to me.



As I drove past the demonstration on L Street shortly before the 2 p.m. start time, I casually listened to a woman's amplified voice egg on the crowd:

Call: What do we want?
Response: (no identifiable response)
Call: When do we want it?
Response: (no identifiable response)

I didn't even have to look at the crowd to gauge that it wouldn't reach the target size of 10,000. Perhaps the number of recent Prop. 8 demonstrations are wearing down the protestors' will to protest. Nevermind: it was bound to be an interesting event, nonetheless.

I parked some distance away from the West Steps of the State Capitol and limped on in (my recent groin injury slowing me down). The crowd was as colorful as could be imagined: gay crowds are the best! Several men in white-face drag were particularly interesting-looking.

The woman organizer once again egged on the audience:

Call: What do we want?
Response: wa-wa-wa-wa
Call: When do we want it?
Response: Now!

What did they say?:

Call: What do we want?
Response: wa-wa-wa-wa
Call: When do we want it?
Response: Now!

This was exasperating. I couldn't quite make out that four-syllable word, even though I was now right in the middle of the crowd. Did everyone here work as a teacher at Charlie Brown's elementary school?

Finally, I stared at a woman's mouth as she formed the syllables:

Call: What do we want?
Response: Equality!
Call: When do we want it?
Response: Now!

Equality! That's a terrible word to place in a slogan! Slogans should be simple, vibrant words no more than three syllables long. But why am I the critic? This is serious business!

Left: Dykes on Bikes.

Left: John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, gay marriage pioneers.
Left: California State Senate President pro Tempore, Darrell Steinberg.
Left: Dennis Mangers, and husband.
Left: Comedienne Margaret Cho sang an amusing ditty concerning Proposition Eight, and the Mormon Church.
Left: Selena Luna, from "The Cho Show".
Left: Attorney Gloria Allred.


Leaving the demonstration, and heading back to the car, I struck up a conversation with a woman originally from New York named Jetta who wanted to join the demonstration, but like me, had been fretting about parking her car in a zone likely to attract the attention of the parking ticket people. It turned out she does Improv theatre and karaoke, and she invited me to some of their doings at the Geery Theater - an invitation I'm likely to honor. There are lots of little places in Sacramento theater!