Gay marriage supporters march in the Central Valley

Several hundred people participated in a 14.5-mile march in support of same-sex marriage today in what organizers called “a symbolic sign of respect for the social movements before us.”

The marchers, departing from Selma, a central valley town that bears the same name as the historic Alabama center of the 1960s civil rights movement, were expected to arrive in Fresno about 1 p.m.

Fresno police said they were expecting between 3,000 and 5,000 people to converge at the town’s City Hall for an afternoon rally.

Some African American gay activists were troubled by the march and suggested that the 1965 marches from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, Ala., were indelible events and that gay activists do not suffer the same kind of oppression that blacks did in 1960s Alabama.

Some in the Central Valley were also offended by the suggestion that their community should be compared to the Jim Crow South.

Fresno police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said march organizers had been “extremely cooperative” in working with local officials to plan a safe rally and march. The biggest concern, he said, was Fresno’s blistering heat, which was expected to climb beyond 90-degrees. He urged rally participants to drink plenty of water and wear sunscreen and light clothing.

-- Teresa Watanabe and Jessica Garrison

 

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Comments

[DingTank]

I there is any hatred for these people, it's not because of their wish for gay marriage. It's there abhorent tendency to latch onto other movements as their own. A tactic that is disgusting on so many levels.

[Warren]

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

[Bagginz]

Hatred? Abhorent? Disgusting? Give us a break, DinkTank. MLK took the idea for the March from Selma from Gandhi's march to the sea to make salt. Noboby has a monopoly on tactics of peaceful protest.

[Mark]

Hey DingTank: Maybe to "those people", their desire to feel equal DOES seem comparable to other movements. You have a right to your opinion, of course, but don't deny others from expressing theirs, even if it seems extreme to you. They're not hurting anybody with their opinions.

[Leslie]

Unlike the "black" civil rights movement, the "women's" civil rights movement, or the growing "immigrant" civil rights movement, gay marriage is comprised of and embraces people from ALL of those groups. A human rights movement. And like all of the civil rights movements anyone can participate, show support and will benefit from the inevitable win. How wonderful.

[K222PASADENA]

So that's all you want to focus on? That SOME people don't think gays suffer as much as blacks? Who? NAME THEM. QUOTE THEM. Shame on you, L.A. Times. What lousy coverage. Gays and lesbians suffer plenty. Just look how the courts abdicated their duty to protect them. Do we have to have a contest about who suffers more? How offensive, to encourage this kind of rivalry among stigmatized groups

[Uncle_vito]

Glad so many people support prop 8. LAtimes.,

[birdy]

when my little siiter got beaten up and robbed on the street in Clovis, which is the suburb to Fresno, causing her jaw to be wired shut just because she's lesbian and wears short hair, when she's been turned down for work, when people yell insults at her and threaten while she's just walking down the street, SHE IS SUFFERING DISCRIMINATION! my older black brother and sister don't experience the same trouble as my younger white gay sister. i'm sick of hearing that her trouble can't be compared. try walking in her shoes for a day-- you have no clue what it's like.

[Nance Espinosa]

I think it's kind of smart on their part. If anyone cares to look for references on "Selma march" they will get both hits. Which will put their message out there for those who didn't know.

[Juan]

Fire will rain down upon these people. The wicked will be tormented. Marriage has been defined between a man and a woman, for centuries. This is well known. An act of defiance, yes, this is what this movement,, both legal and social, is truly about. What I expect next from the gay rights is a monumental push to imposed their ideology and social values into the mainstream of education -- we see this played, even today, in film, television, print, novels, politics. I say lets stop it right now and here. Enough of the cheeky humor in film and TV so they can soften our minds toward their social values and we can laugh about their lives and swallow, humor and gay sex, in one minute of commercialized satire. They think I love Lucy was for their moms and pops but today they prefer to have us all watch their fathers wallow in their own reflection of love and sex in a modern gay city -- free of children and families.

Enough of it. Walk back into the sea.

[loveisaright]

Re DingTank, it is remarks like his/hers which only illustrate the unending plight of LGBT persons in this country. We have been written off for far too long as ineffectual, worthless, undeserving of political consideration and societal concern.

Until the 1960's, we were seen as degenerates, psychologically diseased. In the 1970's, when a lot of us came out, we remained the skeletons in the closet of mainstream America. It took Reagan years to even mention us and the HIV epidemic by name in the 1980's. Clinton, confronted us directly, but signed into law two discriminatory pieces of legislation, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and the Defense of Marriage Act. We are arguably one of the most hated groups of people in the world - religious zealots call us sinful, nations punish us with death, families disown us, other minorities reject us. (Need I mention the African-American community's overwhelming support of proposition 8 in last year's California state elections?) Gays and lesbians grow up in a nation with few role models, little emotional or social support, and virtually no guidance from our families.

This experience hardened and angered me as a teenager. I thought, "If society rejects me, then I shall reject society." I was proud of my sexual identity and prouder of my separate and unequal status. Now that I'm older, I realize that I was wrong. Although ever more proud of my queerness, I abhor the inequality. I understand that it was the root cause of my suicidal tendencies as a young man and the foundation of my profound aversion to heteronormativity.

Indeed, like many young people today, I believe that marriage, in and of itself, is an outdated cultural institution. Nonetheless, if it must continue to be practiced, let it be done equally. LGBT youth deserve to grow up with the assurance that they too may realize the dreams and pursue the lives that you take for granted. They should no longer merit hateful, ignorant remarks like yours. And I am sick and tired of it all.

[Randy]

I hate to think my right to vote is subject to a group of people who just don't like what I think. Creating this kind of iconic imagery doesn't cover up the underlying discrimination against my legitimate values. Why is media attention more important than Supreme Court decisions? The Gay Lesbian agenda is the ultimate seduction, convincing an entire society that their thinking is wrong and that all boundaries around propiety should be destroyed. I am discriminated against because I refuse to be seduced by relativism, but I'll sit here and surf the internet on a Saturday, not get out and march on a 90 degree day. Is that smart or apathetic?

[Heather]

Next it will be pushed in our schools. It is wrong. Leave marriage alone!

[Raul]

We have freedom to do anything-but we can't choose or escape the consequences. Protectmarriage.com

[Rick Chavez]

President Obama did not support Prop 8 and said it was unconstitutional and violated basic human rights. The late wife of Martin Luther King Jr. , Coretta Scott King believed in and supported civil rights for the gay community including gay marriage and also stated if MLK was still alive he would have also. Its disgusting that so many african Americans voted for Prop 8. Unfortunately they have been blinded and bigoted by the lying preachers of gloom and doom they listen to every Sunday. A few years back two 13 year old boys were executed by a public hanging in Iran for being gay. Please don't say we as gay men and women haven't suffered in comparison to the African American struggle.

[Mufon]

What is the significance of meeting in Fresno? Not a sarcastic question, but why there?

[Kate]

I wish I could join the marchers today who are standing up against bigotry and discrimination. It's wrenching to see such blatant hate and homophobia on this and so many other message boards. These hateful messages show just how rooted anti-gay attitudes remain in our society. Fortunately, the tides are turning, slowly but surely. The polling data consistently shows growing numbers of Americans recognize that all loving couples should have the same protections under the law through marriage. I think all GLBIT people recognize that all oppressions are different, but in choosing to start in Selma, the organizers of this march drew an apt parallel between a historic and a contemporary struggle for civil rights and dignity. I hope that people of all creeds and colors will recognize how the bible has been twisted into a text of hate to exclude not just gays, but previously also women, blacks, Native Americans, Asians, and Latino/as from American society.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told his supporters, "When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
www.eqca.org

[Amy]

Oh, baloney, Heather - I am a California schoolteacher and I assure you, I am so busy jumping through hoops, both state and federal, that I have no time to push any outside agenda, whether gay or straight, and it's the same with my colleagues (several of whom are gay) -- nor would we be allowed to if we tried, so please put that tired old fear tactic to rest, would you? I wish I could have participated in the march, and I look forward to the day when my gay friends and neighbors can enjoy all of the same rights that my husband and I do, including the right to stand before their Higher Power and pledge to love and cherish one another 'til death do they part. Instead of denying them, one would think that everyone would applaud them for wanting to sanctify and solemnize their commitment through holy matrimony. What are you so frightened of? How is my marriage in any way diminished by another couple calling their union a marriage instead of adomestic partnership? The gay couple who live next door to us got married last year...hmm, it's been almost 12 months, and I have not seen how their doing so has harmed me or my family in any way, shape or form. It takes NOTHING away from me and mine, in fact I find it to be a very positive and joyous movement. LET FREEDOM RING!!!!!!