Another Day, Another Anti-Gay Amendment

Well it's two days after the convention. It was a good day that started very early. You probably have read about it elsewhere but I wanted to give you a peek into what it was like as a participant. (I even started podcasting it for a future podcast, stay tuned)

We arrived at the State House at 7:30 AM and a line had already started outside. It was very easy to spot which side was which. The easiest way to tell them apart was their age. The pro marriage equality side were clearly the youngest of both groups. (Quite frankly we were afraid that some of the anti-gay side weren't going to make it once we got inside because of the standing times and the temperature, even this old man dizzy at point, luckily no ambulances were needed).

Once the doors opened we went up to the fourth floor to wait for tickets to get into the gallery. As you can see from the pictures to the right, the corridors were packed and warm. A woman from my Dad's church came up to me and shook my hand and wanted to know if I had heard anything about the day (I hadn't at this point). My husband didn't get to meet her so he went over and introduced himself to her and her group. He commended the work she does along side his father-in-law (my Dad) for the poor.

The anti-gay side did have a few youths there. One small group (3 or 4) were behind us when we were outside. The most interesting thing about them was that they were not even from Massachusetts. They were bussed in from New Jersey. The kids didn't even know what the building was that they were going into. In the picture to the right to can see them talking with an older man who brought them (in blue) who was also from New Jersey. I know this because he told the woman (with the crucifix) in the picture that. Ironically, this man was interviewed by New England Cable News titled: Lawmakers recess without vote on gay marriage (or cut and past [javascript:playVideoClip('plV868874')] without the brackets into your browser). His name is Bruce Burns, of course he doesn't say on camera that he lives out of state.

After we got our tickets to the gallery we went back outside to see how things were going there. Again, the pro-equality side outnumbered the anti-gay by at least 2 to 1. We even saw Mickey "I run for every elected office and never win" Roache there on the anti-gay side chatting up some petitioners at about 11ish.

For the remainder of the day we were in the Great Hall watching the anti-gay protestors dwindle by the minute. Even the Franciscan Sisters in full habit got into the act by breaking chairs in the hall ala "The Who", ok, they didn't actually do it on purpose, the chairs fell apart as they were moving them but it broke up the monotony of the day.

At around 4:30 we were back in the House Gallery for the closing minutes of the session. A couple of women next to me were upset because it was taking so long for each roll call vote and then I had to laugh to myself. They were upset because the House and Senate were following the rules of the convention. It seems they wanted the legislature to only follow the rules when it did what they wanted and on their timetable.

A rally followed in the Great Hall where many of the pro equality side were still there. It was good to see Mark from Queer Today and meet Chris from Take Mass Action. I think we were all proud of the work that had gone on that day. Mark mentioned to me that there was no hide nor hair of Massresistance/Article Hate. My guess: they're probably still waiting for the legislature to vote to oust the 4 judges. If so, they have a long wait.