“Pray Away the Prejudice”

This morning we had a pre-rally breakfast up on Capitol Hill – close to where the march started. Our friends Betsy & Kim joined us there and I think it made it all the more meaningful for Paige to feel like she was marching for the civil rights of her loved ones. You see, even though Betsy & Kim have been together for years and are one of the most loving couples that we know – they are unable to legally marry. We think that is sooooo stupid.

After breakfast we headed to Volunteer Park and gathered with over 3,000 other people who were fired up and ready to go. The crowd listened to a series of speakers, including Mayor Nickels who declared today “Marriage Equality Day.” The sun was on our side.

Even though people are predominately addressing this as a gay-marriage issue, Prop8 is really about stripping the civil rights of a group of people because they are gay. This sounds eerily familiar, kinda like when our country stripped withheld the basic civil rights of African Americans or Japanese Americans (hello internment camps!). It wasn’t that long ago when interracial marriages were illegal. If you ask me it sorta smells a bit unconstitutional and discriminatory to me. Scary.

It was amazing to see gay, straight, families, religiously affiliated and people across the diversity spectrum come out in support of this important issue.

Paige is one proud demonstrator and was so happy to see folks on the sidelines cheering the rally on. Power to the peeps!