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Mon. Mar 01, 2004

Revelations at the Capitol

Revelations at the Capitol – I made a trip to the Georgia State Capitol today, essentially to people watch. Boy, am I depressed. From the AJC: “Political foes gathered Monday morning for a show of force at the state Capitol, where legislators will vote on whether to reconsider a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.”

I went to take pictures of protesters, something I used to do a lot more. And you’ll find about 20 I took today at the end of this entry. But I don’t want to say a whole lot about what I saw. I walked among the pro’s and the anti’s, and there were many times I heard shouted phrases that made my tongue want to leap out of my mouth in a possessed response. But I held it then, and I’ll hold it now. I think I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

But you can get the general tone from the report in the AJC: “As the Georgia General Assembly reconvened Monday afternoon to reconsider a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, hundreds of Georgians vigorously exercised their right to free speech.”

“Though the invective was heated at times, police reported no major incidents or injuries [...] The crowd was not shy.”

“‘I am here to support God,’ Baxter said. ‘I want to make sure the sewers of sodomy don’t get in my yard.’”

“Baxter, on the Capitol side of the street with other supporters of the amendment, yelled, ‘you hate God!’ at his opponents. A nearby sign said ‘Homo Sex is a Sin.’”

“A 13-year-old girl told gays they were going to hell. Two Boy Scouts held signs railing against gay marriage.”

“As opponents of the proposed amendment sang ‘America the Beautiful,’ a supporter of the gay marriage ban waved a sign that said, ‘Three Gay rights: AIDS, Hell, Salvation.’”

“Another sign said, ‘All queers will burn in hell unless they repent.’”

“A man speaking with a microphone and loudspeaker ended the pro-amendment portion of the rally. ‘If God is going to let you into heaven, he is going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for burning those cities to the ground. Do you think God is going to apologize? ... It makes him want to vomit when he looks down here and sees that,’ he said as he pointed across the street at the anti-amendment contingent.”

Many of the people described and quoted above appear in the photos that follow. And one pair of photos deserves some background. Afterwards, I talked to the woman who is the subject. She said she’d had dinner with Rep. John Lewis last weekend, and when they discussed the marriage amendment, he told her that sometimes you have to sit down for what you believe. So, today when she was asked to move to the “proper” side of the street, she took Rep. Lewis’ advice, and sat down. But the cops and a friend managed to talk her down up, and she wasn’t arrested.

All photos are linked to a popup enlargment.