Same-sex marriage supporters take to Market St. Friday night in protest
By: Staff, Wire Report
November 7, 2008
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| In arms: Protesters line up on Market Street on Friday in a show of civil disobedience against the passage of Proposition 8. (John Upton) |
SAN FRANCISCO — More than one-thousand protesters marched up Market Street Friday night from Civic Center to the Castro — waving signs and rainbow flags — to express their disappointment and outrage over the passage Tuesday of the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
The march started at 5:30 p.m. on Market and seventh streets, and made its way up through the Castro to end at Dolores Park. Before the march started, there were informal speeches made.
“We will not be silenced until we have equality,” said Rylan Vick.
At the tail end of the march, a group of protesters blocked the intersection of Market and ninth streets in an act of civil disobedience. Muni lines 5, 7, 9, 21 and the F-Market were affected by the march and protest and some lines were re-routed, according to a spokesperson for the city agency.
The action was planned separately from the march, said organizer Kip Williams, a 26-year-old transplant from Tennessee who lives in the Mission.
“I came to San Francisco and California so I could be myself, for safety and freedom away from the discrimination I grew up with,” said Williams. “And then Proposition 8 passes.”
Police presence was sparse for the march and used mostly for crowd and traffic control. A group of officers in riot gear, however, guarded over those blocking the intersection.
SFPD spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said earlier on Friday that the police had been told by event organizers that the march would be orderly and would remain on the sidewalk. She said she was not aware of the planned civil disobedience, but that the department would be “prepared to respond to any event that arises.”
There was one counter-protester seen at the event. Chauncey Killens, the associate minister of Soul Church of God and Christ in Salinas, held a “Yes on 8” sign and declared to a reporter, that “the Lord is on our side.”
Openly-gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty who spoke at a candlelight vigil on the steps of City Hall Wednesday night to protest the passage of Proposition 8, said “there’s a lot of emotion in the community around this vote.
Early Friday, Dufty said he planned on attending the march. A spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom said the Mayor would not be attending.
Williams said although “people are angry and heartbroken” they planned for tonight’s events to be peaceful and free from violence.
Seven people were arrested Wednesday in Los Angeles after a few participants in a mostly-peaceful march tried to cross a line of officers and one jumped on top of a police car.
“I don’t think we’ll have that type of energy here, because The City overwhelming voted against Prop. 8,” said Dufty.
