Petrelis Files

Gays Rally at SF City Hall
For Love, Marriage & Liberation

The crowd that gathered for the hour-long City Hall rally tonight, along with most of the speakers at the podium, was a wide cross-section of out of the closet, loving, ethically and economically diverse gay people and our allies, and I could feel our solidarity in the face of crushing defeat linking all of us.

Our visibility and beauty, two glaring omissions from the bloodless No on 8 campaign and TV ads, were undeniable tonight and will look great on TV. Police and news reporters estimated a crowd of approximately 2,000 people showed up.

There was one interruption near the podium, when I hollered at my friend Bevan Dufty, who was the MC. "Enough white speakers awready. I wanna hear from some black gays!" Bevan shot me his best "I hear you" look and soon brought up black gays to address the massive crowd. Later on, he told me it sometimes just isn't a real protest unless I've been bossy with somebody ;-)

Best line tonight came from Supervisor Sophie Maxwell: "I may be so-called straight, but I believe in love!"

Although it was empowering to be on the steps, seeing so many others with candles, posters and all raising our voices protesting the voters' verdict, I'm way over hearing from Democratic Party leaders and elected officials about the allegedly great strategic battle we waged. I would have liked for someone to address the need to no longer invest millions of community dollars in electoral campaigns that keep gays in the closet.

If we're going to invest so much money and effort in these initiatives, can we FINALLY start to do so as proud and visible integral components to a campaign, and not just seen as ATMs and PayPal donors?

I don't need my spirits buoyed for the long-term. Better that I hear the lessons learned by these leaders, so the same damn closeted mistakes aren't made in the future.

All in all, many thanks to everyone who was there physically, and everybody else with us in solidarity. I hope you all enjoy the photos:

Looking down the center of Civic Center Plaza


A shot looking south


Elected Official Mark Leno


Elected official Jose Cisneros


Elected official Aaron Peskin

Assistant City Attorney Theresa Stewart

Elected Official Sophie Maxwell

Community advocate Molly McKay

No on 8 leader Kate Kendall

Longtime community advocates and husbands Jon and Stuart

The man on the right is with a local Gay Straight Alliance, who proposed to and married, oops, took vows of love, before an ecstatic crowd, over the top with joy for the guys.

The openly gay Rev. Mark Wilson, leader of clergy against Prop 8.

Community advocate Andrea Shorter

My night ended running into Francis. You may recall that at the first gay wedding at City Hall in June, for Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Francis was struck with a heart seizure on the sidewalk As paramedics worked to save him, anti-gay protesters said it was God's punishment against sin in San Francisco. Francis was happy to be back at City Hall, fighting for liberation.