More than 200
protesters gathered in front of Los Angeles’s
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Sunday as part
of a continuing spate of demonstrations against the
narrow passage of California’s Proposition 8,
which bans same-sex marriages. Initially billed as a "quiet
vigil of peace," the event was more similar to recent
Prop. 8 demonstrations: signs, honks, and chants.
More than 200
protesters gathered in front of Los Angeles’s
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Sunday as part
of a continuing spate of demonstrations against the
narrow passage of California’s Proposition 8,
which bans same-sex marriages.
Initially billed
as a “quiet vigil of peace” in an e-mail to
local media from a group called the Latino/a LGBT
Coalition, the event was more similar to recent Prop.
8 demonstrations, complete with a variety of signs
with slogans like “No to H8,” “Where
There Is Hatred, Let Me Sow Love,” and
“How Would Jesus Vote” as well as loud
chants, whistles, and even one protester dressed in a
chicken suit. The outfit may have alluded to the farm
safety-related Proposition 2, another ballot measure
put in front of state voters last Tuesday that was approved
by a wide margin.
“Two,
four, six, eight, separate church and state,” a group
of about 75 protesters chanted as they demonstrated on
a sidewalk directly outside the cathedral’s
downtown Los Angeles grounds. Another 120 or so
protesters stood across the street from the cathedral,
waving signs and soliciting honks from cars passing
by.
One protester,
Alejandro Cuevas, said he was demonstrating in front of
the cathedral because “it is important to make a
statement that we are also human, that we deserve the
same rights as everyone else.”
Cuevas, who was
raised Catholic, said it was hard for him at a young age
to learn his church taught homosexuality was a sin.
“But if we
are all created in the image of God, how can we be
wrong?” he asked. “That’s why
I’m here. Hopefully they get the message that we are
tired of being silent, that we’re here and
we’re not going away. We are part of society,
and society needs to adjust to us.”
The demonstration
coincided with the end of the Cathedral’s 12:30 p.m.
Mass, which led to a meeting of several hundred surprised
parishioners walking by the demonstrators. Apparently
unbeknown to demonstration organizers, the 12:30 p.m.
Mass was a Spanish-language service, which may have
accounted for the many blank stares at the English-language
signs and chants.
Several
parishioners shied away from speaking to The
Advocate, indicating they didn’t speak
English, but others, including two nuns, declined to give a
comment. One parishioner who did stop to speak was
Alexis, a young man who was holding his
girlfriend’s hand as they walked by the protesters.
“They have
their rights, you know,” he said.
“They’re human beings.” When
asked if he thought same-sex couples should marry, he said,
“Oh, yeah, they should.”
"It’s OK
with us," an elderly female parishioner said, waving her
hand at the demonstrators as she walked to the
cathedral’s parking structure.
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