MORE PROP-8 PROTESTS SET FOR SATURDAY (UPDATE)

UPDATED at 3 p.m. Wed., 11/12

PHOTO shows Brent Corrigan (left), 22, and lover Janah Blechman, 33, both of Kensington, on the Georgia St. bridge with the massive march on University protesting Prop-8 last Satuday in the background.

Hillcrest -- Two more gay protests against Prop-8 are being planned for this Saturday (11/15).

Plans for a huge protest "at the County Administration Building" downtown were announced last night by director Nick Moede at a meeting of the board of the Hillcrest Business Association (HBA) last night in the Uptown District.

That event is set for 1 p.m. Saturday (11/15), assuming police give their approval, which is expected this afternoon, Moede told San Diego News Service. No final decisions had been released by Moede as of 5 p.m., however.

Moede is an owner of Numbers and Rich's in Hillcrest, and a board member of the HBA. Final details are expected by this afternoon (11/12).

Meanwhile, the LGBT Center in Hillcrest this morning announced a march from Hillcrest to City Hall downtown. An e-mailed announcement said "marchers will gather at 10 a.m. and step off at 10:30 a.m., with a rally following afterwards." No location for the rally was revealed.

"The march is currently schedule to proceed down 6th Avenue to city Hall, but organizers are working out the final details with SDPD," the e-mail from the LGBT Center said.

Whether the two Prop-8 protest events will somehow merge was still unknown at 3 p.m. today (Wed., 11/12).

Sound like community disorganization?

Strong criticism of the No-on-8 campaign is fast emerging within the Gay Community statewide. San Diego News Service first revealed that in-fighting in this on-line coverage of the over 10,000 march from Hillcrest to North Park last Saturday.

Many gay activists are now seriously questioning the No-on-8's timid tactics during the pre-election campaign, "including the decision not to show same-sex couples in (TV) ads," reports the Association Press today (11/12).

"The movement's leaders were 'very timid. They were too soft,' said Robin Tyler, a lesbian comic who created a series of celebrity public-service announcements with the slogan 'Stop the Hate, No-0n-8.' They were rejected (by the No-on-8 campaign) because they were deemed too negative.

"'We were lightweights on our side,' said Tyler," according to A.P.

The No-on-8 campaign intentionally decided not to show gay or lesbian couples, or use the phrase "gay marriage," in the few TV ads that did run in the San Diego area, according to Mark Conlan, editor and publisher of Zenger's Newsmagazine.

"It looks like some of those on the 'No-on-8' campaign may still be in the closet, and were uncomfortable with the idea of being proud to be Gay," said one young marcher last Saturday.

"Some Gays are complaining that their leaders failed to organize a visible and vigorous defense of same-sex marriage," the A.P. reported.

"Leaders of the campaign in favor of gay marriage say they made a strategic decision not to highlight gay newlyweds or same-sex couples with children in their ads for fear of alienating undecided heterosexual voters," the A.P. story continued.

"That (thinking and strategy) didn't work before and didn't work this time," Conlan added.

That's the same kind of closeted thinking that the Homosexual Community had in late '68 and early '69, when it strongly opposed the new, Gay Lib movement launched by young Gays in San Francisco - months before the Stonewall Riots.

"Where was all this energy before the election," asked a young lesbian rhetorically, as she watched a huge 10,000-strong march last Saturday from the Georgia Street bridge. She wouldn't give her name.

"Why weren't we here sooner," asked Jonah Blechman, 33, a local cinematographer whose work (Another Gay Sequel) appeared at Landmark's Hillcrest Theatre in September.

"This is people feeling the fear," added Brent Corrigan, 22, his lover.

"The absence of gay couples in the media (TV ads) campaign was a fatal error," said Michael Petrells, a veteran AIDS activist in San Francisco.
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Copyright 2008 by San Diego News Service, (619) 757-4909 leopowerhere@msn.com