500+ Gather to Protest Discrimination in Albuquerque (with Photos, Video)

Crowd listens to speakers

You can see more photos and videos of the event at our Flickr album our YouTube playlist.

So tired, tired of waiting ...

I was pleased to see that the Sunday Albuquerque Journal deigned to cover the protest against Prop. 8 and for equality under the law that took place Saturday at Albuquerque's Civic Plaza -- and in at least one location in every other state. They pegged the crowd at about 500, and that seems about right to me. The nationwide protest was organized online at Join the Impract.

The focus was on the family (ha), and a fair share of kids and moms and dads and other extended family members were present to emphasize that Prop. 8 and similar discriminatory measures against the GLBT community are perhaps most damaging to families. They destroy any chance for gay couples and their kids to enjoy the same legal protections (and responsibilities) as other citizens under many areas of civil law. This is about the right to execute civil contracts or licenses, not religion.

Regardless of anyone's religious or social views, how can it be right to undermine legal family protections that other citizens take for granted? This isn't supposed to be a theocracy. The separation of church and state is mandated in the Constitution, and equal protection under the law is the bedrock of our republic. The biases and prejudices of the majority are not supposed to be allowed to damage the rights of minorities. No one should have the right to vote to block other people's civil liberties under the law. Period. As one sign at the protest stated, "When Do I Get a Chance to Vote on Your Marriage?"

Attendee on why he's protesting

The thing to remember is that the forces working to stop equal rights from extending fully to GLBT citizens will inevitably lose. All the momentum is moving in the direction of expanding civil rights to all, especially in terms of younger Americans.

A dad explains his attendance

It should be noted, for instance, that while Prop. 8 passed in California this time, it did so my a margin of only four points or so. The last time a gay marriage ban was voted upon -- in 2000 -- before the measure was declared unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court, it passed by more than 20 points.

Crowd heads out to march around downtown

As GLBT couples and families connect more and more honestly with colleagues, neighbors and communities, biases that are sometimes easy to maintain in the impersonal abstract often fall by the wayside. It becomes all too apparent how much more we all have in common than separating us. That's the hope anyway, and there's a very good chance that's what will prevail as we move forward. As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice."

Why are you here?

Photos and videos by M.E. Broderick. Click on photos for larger images. See photos from Saturday protests around the nation at the Join the Impact Flickr group.