I am sitting in my friend's coffee shop in Long Beach ("Viento Y Aqua") after a very interesting day three of No On Prop 8 Protesting. Viento is busy with yummy teas and coffees and even yummier bagel sandwiches a-flowin'. Erykah Badu's laidback grooves are playing on the soundsystem. People are all around the shop sitting in the cozy chairs and sofas, some engaging in conversation, others focused intensely on their laptop screens... It's been a while since I've been here, but I highly recommend you take a visit someday soon. Good food, good people. Good times.

I went to bed around 4 this morning after watching the movie Labyrinth with my two friends. OK, really, I didn't watch much of the film. We didn't even get through a third of it. I caught myself "resting my eyes" for a "minute" during the film, when all of a sudden, I heard two lovely voices singing "Happy Birthday To You" around 3 am. I woke up startled with an oh-my-goodness! (actually I said "Shut Up" as in "Are you serious?!? Cool!") as the voices officially ushered in my new year with a special warm brownie treat in a bowl, topped with a tea light candle. Cute. That's the kind of thing my father used to do for me for my birthday. Simple things go a long way in warming my heart. Even the texts I've been fielding from well-wishers since 6:30 this morning. Happy birthday to me!

Now, let's see here. What can I say about yesterday? Well, for one, I've never been to a rally or march that started right at the time they said they would. I originally wasn't going to attend the Long Beach rally, but Friday afternoon whilst I wrote my recap of Day 2, I texted my Long Beach friend who wanted me to come to the rally with her and told her I would indeed be there. I felt like it was important for me to attend. She made a nice veggie dinner, I arrived at 6 o'clock on the dot, we ate and were on our way to pick up three more of our Long Beach Womyn friends from their parking spot near the end of the march route. We had this great plan to have a car there and a car at the front end of the route; however, by the time we got to the beginning of the march at Broadway and Redondo at 7:15 pm after finding parking, we were greeted with the city rally organizers who merely said "Catch up, they're way down there already". That in itself I thought was so strange, a bit on the "lacking-of-unity" side. I suppose it made sense that they kicked off right away, since I later found out we had an official permit from the city, but c'mon... Strength in numbers goes a long way. Let the energy accumulate a while. Ideally, we should not have kicked off until 7:30, if not later, but they should have waited at least until 7:15. In a way, it was a foreshadow to the sheep-like way we'd all be handled the rest of the evening.

Don't misconstrue my thoughts; as we continually caught up to the large crowd, there was definitely an energy that had been accumulated, and the unity was very evident. Heck, I was even put in my place to see all the many hues of brown-skinned folk out there, many of them I'd estimate at around 17-20 years old. That was AWESOME. But, as we convened at the 2nd meeting point of the rally, this unorganized organized event started to show its colors.

Apparently there was a speaker or two scheduled, but if they were speaking, I couldn't hear a thing, though my crew and I were fairly close to the thick of things. Additionally, as we walked through the city of Long Beach, nothing seemed to be going as "planned". To cut to the chase, we were supposed to end the parade near Hamburger Mary's, but after we got there, we were basically moo-cow ushered back eastbound, far away from the media stationed at our "planned" destination. Far away from any intention to really get our message out there to all of Long Beach and the world at large.

I know each day has been its own entity, and I should not compare Long Beach to the West Hollywood or Westwood rallies, but I felt like the police force wasn't really on our side last night. The display of their sheer lack of caring for our desire to take to the streets brought me back to Day 2 in Westwood when, after we had a sit down in the street near a bank heading northbound on Westwood Boulevard and the police said they'd let us continue, the same officer who gave us the OK also mentioned, "Keep in mind that you are inconveniencing a lot of people out here."

THE AUDACITY!

Inconveniencing people? Inconveniencing people? Well, kind officer, I apologize on behalf of all queers and queer supporters alike for our gross inconveniencing of others who have to sit in traffic while we take to the streets because fowl are more respected than us. I know people just expect the good lil' queers to stay silent and cower under mirrored disco balls, but when it comes to our rights as human beings, wouldn't you be out in the streets, too?

Since we're on the subject of streets, let me be clear in stating that for the most part, especially on our eastbound trek away from where we all thought we were going to end the rally, the police and even the organizers made us walk on the sidewalks. The sidewalks? Are you kidding me? Who ever heard of "taking it to the sidewalks"? That don't even make sense! Sigh.

I got frustrated at one point and started shouting to the cops, "My religion doesn't believe in sidewalks". Then my group of friends and I took up the chant, "Cops are gay, too", with one hottie cop in a Police paddy-wagon driving alongside us with a good sense of humor timing it just perfectly to chime back on her loudspeaker, "Side! Walk! Side! Walk!" That made me laugh, so I at least got closer to the curb for her. 5 minutes or so later, we finally cooperated and were strolling down the sidewalks to what would be the final place of our rally. I honestly can't recall exactly what the cross-streets were where we stopped but here's the synopsis:

*The cops at random times during the march (walk? stroll? moo?) played an automated message bellowing from a speaker in a going-to-put-you-on-hold-for-hours-while-you-wait-for-customer-service voice. When we weren't staying on the sidewalks at the endpoint of the rally, they played this in a loop, nonstop. Paraphrasing, the voice said, "Hi. I am a Long Beach city police officer, and I am declaring this an unlawful event. Please be advised that if you do not disperse immediately, we will have to be forced to use measures that could be painful. This could be a painful bludgeoning from one of our trusty batons, or a nice pop in the butt from our nifty pellet guns. And new to our arsenal are dogs... Which we will totally allow to bite you, should you not leave. Not to mention, we have gas that will not only make you cry, but may turn your insides out. Thank you, have a great day. Your call is very important to us." This repeated in Spanish, too. On second thought, maybe the voice was more like the Disneyland ride voice. Yes, that's it.

*At one point, a lesbian couple walked out to the middle of the street, with riot police lining all the four sides of the intersection, with us all lining the sidewalks. We wondered what they were doing. With one standing, the other kneeled down and began proposing to her lady. Of course, the loop was droning in the background ("...If you do not disperse, we'll be very, very angry with you..."). At some point, another protester went out to the middle of the street with them and sat as well. Apparently, the police were all choked up over the proposal and didn't like proposal-crashers. The cops rushed in on the random protester. Like 6 of them. The girl was little. She had her bandana on her face for protection, just in case. They had her hands hog-tied behind her in a matter of seconds. She was whisked away, kicking her legs as though she were doing a Russian jig, as they detained her. And the two women? Well, they are now engaged. Kind of? Hmm... To me they are, at least.

*More waiting on the sidewalks.

*People started heading south after a half hour or so in defiance and more sidewalk waiting ensued.

*More time passed.

*Suddenly, a guy in a red flannel shirt ran across the street and the cops ran after him with a quickness. They rushed after him, causing me and my friend and about twenty other people nearby to disperse like ants, pushing each other out of the way so as to not get beaten, tackled, or arrested. They got the guy, though. He was carted away in a matter of seconds. I think I almost peed my pants I was so scared. I saw a friend I had no idea was there, and we both looked at each other and gave each other a hug and a greeting of "Oh my god, did you see that? Be safe." When I found my friend again, I think she'd almost peed her pants, as well.

Eventually, my friends and I were done. It was an hour and a half till midnight, so they wanted to get me a couple of birthday drinks. For the most part, the police force were being as nice as they possibly could, but I still feel like they were just treating us like cattle. I also feel that even though I felt for all the organizing they did, we were so unorganized, the city organizers were friendly and as helpful as they could possibly be, making sure that we were taken care of in the best possible way. This over-sheltering is probably why I felt like we were just zombies following orders; but luckily, as far as I know, no real major incidents happened last night. There were a few Yes on 8 supporters shouting ignorance from their car windows, and sure a few people got arrested, tackled even, but I saw no one get punched out today. I feel it was a slightly more peaceful protest as of late. We were united, we were excited and filled with just as much passion as the two days before, even though it was expressed a bit differently. So, overall, I'd say it was truly an effectively good night.

How do I know? Because around 9 pm, someone shot a firework into the sky for us. About 5 minutes later, a second lone, red firework was shot into the sky. Both huge and so pretty!

And at midnight, I turned 25 years old.

Nova Jade*
11-8-08

PS: Tonight @ 6pm we're at Sunset Junction in Silverlake. I'll be there for a couple of hours before I head to a birthday art gallery gig. Peace.