Guadalupe

Last night on a cold December night, Queer Liberaction staged it's first demonstration as a newly formed group.  The event was true to the group's position supporting visible direct action style activism.

As rush hour traffic went by, about 25 of us had the opportunity to show thousands of people our signs with our message of "Gay Rights Are Human Rights".   We were also able to speak to the Dallas Morning News and Univision.  The Dallas Voice didn't send anyone but I talked to them over the phone and sent them a photo so I'm expecting a story in tomorrow's edition.  

Univision was at the Mormon bookstore demonstration and I'm happy that they were at our event last night.  A little birdy told me that Jesse Garcia, former president of the Dallas Stonewall Democrats, was concerned that demonstrating a church with a large Latino congregation would pit Gays against Latinos.  This response from Garcia seems to typify statements from the HRC, Stonewall Dem types.  These messages might at first sound rational but if you scratch the surface they are baseless and without merit.  

Many Latinos in the US know very well what it is like to live without the rights that everyone else has and because of this our pro-equality message should be an easy sell.  However, 53% of Latinos voted in favor of Prop 8.  This would suggest that it is very important to have conversations with this disenfranchised group of people.  

One very effective and powerful way to do this is by doing what we did last night at the Cathedral of Guadalupe.  All of our signs and literature were in English and Spanish.  Univision covered the event and for those that understand Spanish you can see their report here.   Gliff Garinn from Dignity Dallas made the connection on Univision that Human Rights are not just for Gays and Lesbians but for everyone, Latinos included.  

As was with the Mormon Bookstore our aim was not to attack customers or people going to the church, but the Church's leadership.  It was the head honchos sitting on their gilded thrones in the Vatican who propagated the most recent attack against Gays and Lesbians.  By having Dignity Dallas present and through our literature we were encouraging everyone to question the homophobic positions of the Church.  It seems a monumental task but this is ultimately what will secure our liberation from homophobia.  Our goal is to make homophobia so rancid and unpopular that even the Pope himself wouldn't dare to oppose decriminalization of LGBT people for fear of losing his flock.