It’s a Gay Day in Chicago: Nationwide Rally for Gay Rights
On this chilling November day we make our way to downtown Chicago to join thousands in a demonstration of Democracy: our demand for GLBT civil rights in America. Billed as nationwide Anti-Proposition 8 protests and coordinated by various GLBT rights groups across the country with a speed and accuracy that can only happen in the age of the Internet, we find ourselves surrounded by smiling gay and straight supporters.
In light of the at first depressing, then enraging, ballot initiatives that passed at the same time Barack Obama was elected our 44th President—California’s Proposition 8 Ban on Gay Marriage, Arizona’s Proposition 102 Ban on Gay Marriage, Arkansas Initiative 1: Ban on Gay Couples Adopting Children, and Florida Amendment 2: Ban on Gay Marriage – I’m sure you can imagine how good it feels to be a gay person in downtown Chicago today.
The rally begins at Federal Plaza, and opens with the Windy City Gay Men’s chorus singing songs that we find to be far too tame for the mood we’re in, such as “Down by the Riverside”. Indeed, this song and other echoes of the Civil Rights era resound at this event: “I have a dream, too”, one sign reads. Another sign, appropriating language from the Obama rallies, reads “Change, already!” Someone was circulating Obama stickers which we found to be baffling, post-election. (Hey lady, he won.) Some signs advocate gay marriage, others call for the separation of Church and State.
We stand for nearly an hour and a half, half-listening to various speakers whom we hope to identify later, but we’re much more interested in our fellow man, walking arm-in-arm with one another and smiling at everyone around them. Chilled to the bone with only toast in our bellies, and that was hours ago, we head to the nearby Berghoff for an over-priced Wiener Schnitzel—a poor second to the authentic fare recently experienced in Berlin, that city, in that country, where gays have the civil rights we are fighting for. The lager on tap, at least, is good and fortifying.
We make it back to the demonstration at the perfect moment: the speeches just ended and the marching has begun. And best of all: the crowd has swollen exponentially. And wow, do we march. “Yes, we can!” marchers yell, another tagline from the Obama rallies. As we make our way down major streets in central Chicago in the middle of the group, bringing traffic to a halt, it is pretty evident to us that Mayor Daley has a hand in this march it seems as though the higher-ups are cooperating with the march as it is managed in a very orderly fashion. We are escorted by the police and protected as we spill out into the streets.
It’s a liberating and empowering feeling. We are given access to Chicago’s major downtown streets, including State (where a marcher leans over and says, “So are we all going in to Macy’s to protest its takeover of Marshall Fields?” – it’s a Chicago thing) and Michigan Avenue, where the weekend shoppers stand along the sidewalks and applaud and wave, and while traffic is brought to a halt as the blocks-long marchers pass, nary a taxi horn is sounded against us. The only horns we hear are the “beep beep” of support, some to the rhythm of our chants. People in cars roll down their windows, take pictures with their cell phones and wave. People working weekends at their offices stand in their windows and wave to us, some blow kisses, some post hastily made pro-gay marriage signs to the windows. We wave and shout back to them.
Night – and the temperature—falls quickly in November in this northern city. Hours after the rally began, some demonstrators are slipping away to the nearby subway. Our feet are sore but we aren’t cold, anymore. How can we be, in such a surrounding of warmth and love?
Comments
Who put the heading, “Gay Day”. An idiot?
This was a protest of the ban of gay civil unions (or what religious straights call “marriage”). Um ... why isn’t there a “ban” on straight divorce, if straight marriage is so “sanctified”??
Comment by David from Chicago — November 15, 2008 @ 6:29 pm
I was glad to attend (42 yr old straight woman and 1st time protester) but I was a little troubled by some of the rhetoric I heard. A lot of straights were there as your allies and some of the speeches still used “straights” to define “the enemy”. Not all of us are bigoted idiots - there were a lot of us there for you.
Comment by wendyz from Chicago, IL — November 15, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
First to wendyz, let me say that as one of the organizers that I was delighted that you and so many other non-gay allies were there in support of us. Thank you for joining us, and I apologize if there were any stupid comments directed at you or any of our other supporters. As a minority in this country, we can only win if we get the support of non-gay people.
Second, I must pointedly disagree with the comment in the above article that “As we make our way down major streets in central Chicago, bringing traffic to a halt, it is pretty evident to us that Mayor Daley has a hand in this march. We are escorted by the police and protected as we spill out into the streets.”
First, it should be noted that the police were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. They allowed us into the street as that was the safe thing to do. You can’t have thousands of people parading down sidewalks without risking the press of people causing some being pushed into plate glass windows, etc. When they asked us to get people back onto the sidewalk, it was difficult to do this for quite awhile, as we had no portable sound system (if we had planned a march, we certainly would have brought along such a system), but we eventually did so.
Second, as an organizer, I was threatened with arrest a several times by police commanders who know me by name, and ended the night with a city citation for “marching without a permit,” punishable by up to $1000 fine.
The march was completely spontaneous, a welcome expression of passion against continued treatment as second class citizens. If this is what it takes to shake things up and finally win us our legal equality in Illinois and California, then I have no problem with that.
For years I’ve been confounded with the undeserved patience which our community has shown towards a government that refuses to recognize our simple legal equality, let alone the many other things we need. Do gov’t representatives really expect people to respect government parade regulations when “their” government does not even recognize our legal equality, and hence our citizenship?
Comment by Andy Thayer, Gay Liberation Network from Chicago — November 15, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
I too was there as a supporter of EQUAL RIGHTS.
As the mother of one of the organizers, I know that the march was spontaneous. My son and I discussed the legal aspect of this protest many times. He was relieved and extremely grateful that Andy Thayer offered to assist with the permit and to manage the important legalities of what quickly grew to be a massive group.
I was in the crowd and heard the buzz of voices…they wanted to march. My first thought was, “Can they march with the permit they obtained?” My second thought (as a mother of course) was about the safety of my son. To contain a group so large would have been impossible.
Therefore, the crowd walked. I walked with them. I walked for EQUAL RIGHTS. I walked with a group of fellow AMERICANS for miles throughout the city of Chicago for EQUAL RIGHTS! Yes, the Chicago police allowed us to do so. As Andy stated, the police did an excellent job of maintaining order and safety by allowing the crowd to march.
Did Mayer Daley know in advance and allow the crowd to march? How could he have known, when those who organized it didn’t know.
Comment by Robyn from DG — November 16, 2008 @ 8:22 am
it was great—now let’s just keep up the momentum. the next protest is next weekend in Evanston.
Comment by mary — November 16, 2008 @ 11:18 am
To all of you in the USA - PLEASE keep fighting for equal rights - for all! I have been following the movements on the internet with great pride. As a ‘married’ lesbian in the UK, I send you all my love and best wishes for winning this struggle.
How such a sensitive and private issue can be put to a public vote in the first place is beyond comprehension. Such an insult and totally degrading!! How can civil rights be put to a vote?
Don’t ever give up!!!
Comment by nel from UK — November 16, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
Karen, Andy, and others,
I can’t thank you enough for whatever part you played in this rally, be it organizing (Andy) or documenting (Karen), it was a truly amazing experience and certainly an earth shaking one for Chicago.
I do feel the need to correct something I feel is very important, though. When the March first left the plaza, as you all know, we were limited to the sidewalks. It wasn’t until we turned East toward Michigan Avenue that people finally started taking the streets, and even after taking Michigan for a block we, in the front, were barricaded going back West toward State street again. A small group of us saw police on bicycles riding ahead of us to build a barricade and push us back the sidewalk, and were not going to have it. This small bold group of people quite literally pushed through the bike barricade and sprinted to the intersection to stop traffic when the light turned green. This same group of officers kept riding ahead of us to block our path, and this same group of protesters kept spring past them to block yet another green light with our bodies. I myself stopped two vehicles with my hands on the hood and was threatened with arrest multiple times for halting traffic. I witnessed a dozen other people encountering the same.
I post this only to let those others in the march who could not see the “front lines”, so to speak, that this was no easy feat, and it took 4 or 5 of the same very physical encounters with police officers and vehicles alike to finally make it clear that we had grown too large and too brave to stop, and it was only then that we were finally approached by officers and alerted that they had decided to start blocking traffic for us, if we would let them ride ahead. I want to emphasize, this was a DECISION made by the Chicago Police only after we had to forcefully make a path onto, and through the streets of Chicago, with an enormous and growing, incredibly powerful and passionate group of people in tow.
I am so, incredibly proud of this city and the thousands and thousands of others across the country who proved once and for all that we could not be stopped, silenced, or rerouted any more. I should say also that I am especially grateful for the Chicago Police for finally making the right decision in assisting our movement, and to a few specific officers who I had amazing interactions with. One, who approached a friend and I early in the march to say “I’m gay, I’m on your side, we’re going to start helping you guys” made an incredible impact on an overwhelmingly empowering day.
Thank you all for organizing, participating, and promoting future action. We will not be silenced anymore.
Comment by Whitney Seiler from Chicago, Il — November 16, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
Thanks, Whitney. We were in the middle of the group of marchers and couldn’t see what was happening up front. From our vantage point, things seemed amazingly orderly and smooth, while still passionate and forceful. All the police we were encountering were being very respectful and helpful at managing the flow of the crowd and keeping us safe from traffic. We greatly appreciate and honor all the hard work the organizers did as well as the initiative and fortitude of those in the front of the march paving the way.
Comment by Sarah Zupko — November 17, 2008 @ 5:32 am
— PopMatters sponsor —
Too bad Chicago’s Mayor Daley didn’t show up to support his citizens at this important event as LA’s Mayor Villaraigosa did for his.
Obama’s people were in town. Did we have a rep. from his “Change” team, there?
Hey Oprah of “I’ve been on Ellen and it’s OK to be gay”, where were you?
To all the straight people who walked by our side on Saturday: thank you, so very much.
Comment by Jackie T from Chicago — November 17, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
Omg popmatters was there? We LOVE Popmatters!! Kisses to Michael Abernethy.
David & Ricky
Comment by David & Ricky from Chicago — November 17, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
In my mind, gay marriage is about acceptance from a straight religious community, and to that end they will never succeed. In order to sway the majority for anything I think more steps would need to be taken to clean up their own image (I can’t get into a club because I’m not a lesbian and a woman? I should be able to go in with my friends!) Meanwhile, television shows broadcast homosexual stereotypes—and people judge you on those stereotypes, because there are people who want to be stereotypes. Pride goeth before a fall, Ellen DeGen—and some people want to see you as unhappy as they are. The violence that erupted here in L.A. during the protest marches also didn’t help. Reset those priorities, people.
Comment by Dave-O from in yer face! — November 26, 2008 @ 4:18 pm