"stonewall 2.0" + another great blog to read

So, not one day after I wrote about the "gay establishment" in my post on last Saturday's Prop 8 protest, I discovered someone else was writing about the same thing much more eloquently and in more detail.

I *highly* recommend checking out Rex Wockner's blog, which contains a stunning array of reports on Prop 8 protests around the country and trenchant analysis of the Prop 8 campaign's rather timid, and ultimately unsuccessful, strategy, particularly here and here.

He has also posted fantastic pictures of a number of the recent Prop 8 protests, including lots from the 25,000 strong march in San Diego (pictured above), which looks amazing and turned out to be the largest in the country on 11/15. San Diego? Who knew??

What Wockner has picked up on is the amazing, exuberant energy at these protests, which is totally different from anything I experienced while working with the "official" No on 8 campaign. This energy, plus the incredible, viral speed with which word of these protests spread is what makes it feel like we are really potentially at the beginning of a new movement.

I have been to a hell of a lot of protests. Not hundreds, but certainly dozens, and some huge ones too--the million-strong March for Womens' Lives; half a million against the Iraq war on Feb. 15, 2003 in New York. But only a handful have had the transformative feeling of these protests--particularly that first march down Sunset the night after the election. That feeling that you may be at the start of something very important and special.

There is really only one other protest I've been to that compares to that night march on Nov. 5. That was the protest I went to on September 21, 2001. I actually mentioned this protest in my application to USC, in my "most emotional moment" essay, because the experience is still vivid after seven years. When someone put out a call for a march against war 10 days after September 11th, no one was really sure what to expect. There wasn't even a war to protest yet, although we were quite sure there would be soon enough. We didn't think anyone but really hard-core leftists would show up for a peace march ten days after September 11th. The World Trade Center rubble was still burning, and you could smell it as we gathered at Union Square. Two hundred people would be an excellent turnout, we decided. We were utterly shocked when five thousand people showed up. These were New Yorkers, and they were saying no to war. When people started chanting "No war, no attacks, bombs won't bring our loved ones back," you felt like you were witnessing a really historic moment.

Of course, these explosive moments of protest have their challenges, too. The problem with spontaneous, decentralized protests is that it's hard to keep them going without some kind of leadership that is reasonably well-organized and committed to struggle. The antiwar movement that gave birth to that protest on September 21st basically collapsed two months later with the fall of Kabul, and it took another two years and another war to get people into the streets again. A number of bloggers have dubbed the protests against Prop 8 "Stonewall 2.0." History will judge whether this is an accurate description. But one thing is clear, which is that nothing resembling Gay Liberation Front 2.0 or ACT UP 2.0 has yet emerged. These are the kind of organizations that will need to develop if this movement is going to be more than a flash in the pan.