By Dave Zirin

x-posted from Edge of Sports with permission.

As supporters of Gay Marriage have discovered, it’s never easy to be on the Mormon Church’s enemies list. The Church of Latter-Day Saints backed the anti-Gay Marriage Proposition 8 in California with out-of-state funds, and gave the right a heartbreaking victory this past election cycle. But the Mormon Church has been challenged in the past. Just ask Bob Beamon.

Boycott Utah? Absolutely. I still think it’s a no-brainer response to Prop 8′s Mormon-funded passage and something that has to happen.

Granted, some folks will hem and haw, but the reality is that it’s already happening and currently ongoing. And here’s my request to those of you reporting on the boycott: next time you feel the impulse to deliver instant gratification to your readership re how the boycott is faring, please first take a moment to pause and consider what a sad joke it is for professionals like you to expect boycott proponents like me to be available to quantify the impact-to-date after one friggin’ month, given the current national economic situation, and the fact that Utah’s peak ski season hasn’t even started yet, not to mention that every Utah official who you might query will have a vested interest in disavowing any impact.

Kevin Miniter, who was arrested in the widely seen footage during the initial Prop 8 protest march the day following the election, has spoken to the Washington Blade to recount his story.

I have to admit that while protesting, I wondered what might happen if I were to be arrested. Not surprisingly, Kevin makes it pretty clear that it wasn’t pleasant.  In the end, they released him after 2 days, presumably without charges. But he was released with bruising and bleeding resulting from a questionable use of force when subduing him. Seems to be that they were using him as an example to keep the rest of the crowd back. The video below shows the event.

DailyKos brought this survey about public opinion about Prop 8 since the election to my attention, and it holds what could be good news.  It found that 8% of the the people who voted for Prop 8 have changed their minds since the election.  Even better, 13% of Blacks who voted for Prop 8 have changed their mind.

At Princeton University today, the majority decided that it was in the best interest of Princeton society to eliminate the right freshmen had to use sidewalks. Substantially all the benefits of movement were available for freshmen, however the majority decided that they were more comfortable if the freshmen were to define their own means for getting around.

Melinda Santa Cruz, now a former Mormon, shares her experience at the National Day of Protest in San Diego in the San Diego Reader.  Here’s an excerpt:

A handsome young guy with a winning grin came over to ask if I was straight. I don’t know who he was. He could have even been a Mormon, although I’ve never seen any missionaries with a mohawk and a toy rabbit stapled to his hoodie. 

Click here to read the full blog post at the San Diego Reader.

The Orange County Register has the details and a photo gallery.  I can’t tell if this was at a temple or a church building.   Can anyone provdie more details?   The use the terms “temple” and “stake” in the article so I’m not sure.

I’ve slowed down the video of the infamous “Palm Springs Prop 8 Cross Stomping” incident to watch it very closely and see exactly what is happening.  The original video is being circulated among our opponents to say that WE are out of control.   I think you’ll see here that the old lady, Phyliss Burgess, in this video was the one who set out to stir things up.

Photos were starting to come in this morning of the Prop 8 (and other measure) protests forming across the nation and world. Here are some of the first from Twitter.  Join the Impact started a Flickr group with thousands more photos from throughout the day, and from across the country and world.  Towler Road also has galleries organized by protest location.

Dallas Protest

New York City Protest

Protest Forming in Orlando, Florida

 

Los Angeles protest forming at City Hall in the downtown area.

 
For information on the National Day of Protest this Saturday, please visit Join The Impact. This has the makings to be a landmark event in LGBT history.

Many are calling the uprising since the election Stonewall 2. For those of you who want to learn more about the original Stonewall uprising, please check out this Wikipedia article.