March for Equality

Saturday morning was the National March for Equality and I went to it with Odum and Dale. We tried to recruit more of our crew, but all to no avail. Auri didn't want to take the kids because they weren't feeling well, and Miss Noelle sprained her ankle so she wasn't too keen on the idea of being on it all day. Totally understandable... not sure what everyone else was doing...
The rally started at 11:30 at the City & County Building in Salt Lake and then there was a march around the blocks of the SLC Library and the County Building. Once again, it was so amazing being surrounded by such positive energy (except for the "I say I'm a messenger of God, but really I'm just a giant butthole" people) ...I think the turnout ended up being around 3,000 people in all.
There were a ton of people who took signs with them and I got such a kick out of reading them. If you click on the picture above, it will enlarge and you can read some of the signs. One of them says, "I can see discrimin8tion from my house," and there was another that said, "I'm Joe the Fag." Obviously all politically charged... with good reason. When we got there a band was playing... they were awesome and I need to look them up and find out who they are. I'd definitley recommend their music. There were three or four speakers total and this picture below is of the last one, who I believe was the keynote speaker. His name is Jeff Key and he is an Iraq War Veteran and former Marine and was so great to listen to. His story was interesting and he really engaged the crowd. There was a 17-year-old kid who spoke prior to Jeff and he was awesome. I think his name was Elon Bartholomew (or something like that) and he spoke of his parents' divorce and the subsequent relationship that developed between his mom and her partner. I got teary...

The thing that finally did me in was seeing the sign the little girl is holding in this picture below. It says, "My best friend LOVES her two mommies." This little girl is maybe four years old. Maybe. And hello, let's think about this. She's four. She doesn't know the difference between gay and straight, black and white, male and female. Well, ok, maybe she knows her colors and that boys and girls are different, but she doesn't know about discrimination. Like all the stickers and sayings go, "No One Is Born A Bigot," and "Bigotry is Learned." I can assure you, this little girl's family is not going to teach her to discriminate, but they will teach her about what it means and why it's such an evil part of human nature. I don't know who this little girl is, so I hope her family isn't angry that I took her picture. I do know that her sign is what pushed me over the edge and I started bawling after I saw her.

And then, wouldn't you know it, Odum started crying.... and it was all downhill from there. Of course, the next person I happened to see was my therapist and her partner. I gave them both big hugs and then we started our march down the middle of 4th south and around the buildings. I told Odum the only time she sees me I'm bawling my eyes out. Oh well. It was for good reason. Not sure how to end this, other than, everyone in this country is entitled to their civil rights and the government and religious institutions should not have the authority to take them away - no matter what!