KarMel
Scholarship 2008
|
Personal
Story “Counter
Protest By Ruth
Carter |
Desciption of Submission: “Participating in a protest
of an anti-same-sex marriage rally” - Ruth
|
“Mom,
I’m scared.” Those were the words that escaped my mouth when I called my mom while
I was walking towards the state capital.
It was May of 2004 and I was volunteering with Marriage Equality
Arizona, an organization dedicated to the legalization of same-sex
marriages. I was on my way to join my
group for a protest. We had had a big
event a few weeks prior where members of the clergy married over twenty
same-sex couples. To this day,
marriages that are performed without a marriage license are illegal. The clergy members risked jail time by
going to the state and demanding that the marriages be acknowledged as legal
unions. For a few weeks, our event
brought same-sex marriage to the forefront in On
this day, conservatives responded by having a rally at the state capital to
promote their views: a marriage should only be between a man and a
woman. We decided to have a peaceful
protest by walking around their rally with our pro-same-sex marriage shirts
and signs. Going into the event, we
knew we were outnumbered. I wasn’t
prepared to see the magnitude of the conservatives who took time out of their
day to attend the rally. They came by
the busload and the sides of the buses had the names of various local churches. They came with their children, many of them
still toddlers. And they were dressed
from head-to-toe in white. Walking
through the crowd, speaking passionately with my mother on my cell phone,
they thought I was one of them because my T-shirt was white like theirs. As I stood on the street corner waiting for
the light to change, many of them smiled at me, perhaps considering me a
young person making it a priority to show support for their beliefs. And then
they saw that my shirt said “Marriage Equality.” Their faces changed from pride, to
confusion, to rejection in about four seconds. I feared what these stroller-pushing
soccer-moms might say to me. I feared
the righteousness in their eyes. I
feared the values they were teaching their children. I feared for whom they’d vote in the next
election. Thankfully, none of them
said a word to me and I hurried on across the street. My
heart raced when I saw the sea of white blanketing the lawns between the
capital buildings. In the center was a stage and a man, likely a church leader, who was
standing at the microphone proclaiming that they were doing “God’s work” that
day. I feared his God. I power walked on. I
kept talking to Mom on my phone until I met my group. She told me that everything would be fine
and nothing bad was going to happen to me.
I didn’t want to scare her by telling her I was afraid these people
might attack me and leave me beaten in the street or worse. My mother has always been supportive of me
and encouraged me to stand up for my beliefs,
however I know she feels a maternal instinct to protect me too. I know she was relieved to hear that I had
safely met my group where there were other people, including some big men, to
protect me since she couldn’t be there to do it herself. I
was relieved when I met my group and my heart rate slowed a bit. There was only
about a dozen of us compared to the 4,000 of them. We knew we’d be badly outnumbered, but it
was important that we remind the conservative masses that not everyone in the
community shared their views. It was
imperative that we exhibited our right of free speech to show our government
that our beliefs were as valid as theirs were. As we walked around their rally, I feared
what the crowd might say. I was
grateful when we saw that most of them were focused on their rally and didn’t
appear to mind us since we weren’t engaging them. This suited our desire to raise awareness
with minimal risk to our physical safety.
When their rally ended, our protest was over as well. The conservatives piled back into their
buses and we walked back to our cars.
I walked with a woman from my group who had her two adorable daughters
with her. I made sure she was safely
on her way As
I walked in the direction of my vehicle, I wondered if people would see the
HRC sticker on my bumper and know that a gay car was amongst theirs. Would they vandalize it? Put pro-conservative flyers on my
windshield? Thankfully, my car was
untouched. I
knew when I moved to |