Dust Bunnies Take To The Streets - Part II

Miss Ginger Grant commented today on how proud I must be of all my Dust Bunnies for your Join The Impact efforts. Words cannot express how proud I am of all of you. And the fact that we did this separately - all across the nation - but were still able to do it "together" through this little old blog, gets me a little teary.

Then again, this could just be Miss Ginger trying to keep the Houston Dust Bunnies at the top of the chapter list. Drag Queens can be quite sneaky. :) But whatever her motivation, I AM proud.

So this is "Part II" of the post from this morning. First of all, I have to acknowledge the FUNNIEST sign yet - which I stole from Marker (he stole it from somewhere else). The sign appeared in Dallas:

If you do not know what this refers to, you are not a homosexual. Proceed directly your local Hooters.

Dover, DE - Part II:

The pictures above were taken by Mark (see his Join The Impact post HERE). Howard, who also attended the Dover demonstration, states that this may have been the first EVER gay rights protest in the entire state of Delaware. If so, that is AWESOME.

Even more awesome is the fact that Howard, his straight niece, and their friend (the mother of a lesbian) combined with Dust Bunny Mark and his spouse, accounted for 15-20% of the total number of protesters. So, Dust Bunnies and their loved ones/supporters were CRUCIAL to the very first Gay Rights Demonstration in the history of the great state of Delaware. I'm feeling like some kind of Mayflower Bitch right about now!!

Ft. Myers, FL:

I have to say something about those of you who attended "small" protests. It's one thing to live in New York or San Francisco and go to something like this. We KNOW there will be thousands of people there, and the others we encounter will overwhelmingly be supportive. But in places live Dover, DE or Ft. Myers, FL - that isn't necesarily the case. In fact, only ONE PERSON - a Towleroad reader named Jack - showed up to the "rally" in Ft. Myers. But Jack stood up for his (and OUR) rights.

He had this to say: "Not much of a turnout in Ft Myers. I was the only one there at city hall. I did represent though."

Note to Jack - YOU ARE FABULOUS - and don't you EVER forget it.

Sacramento:

My favorite potty-mouthed Christian mom, Jennie, attended the rally in Sacramento, but had to leave due to the extremely bad migraine headache. She had this to say:

FUCK! I forgot to take a picture! Sacramento was good, but not as well attended as I thought. More people might have shown up after I left, but the news reports didn't seem to show that.

Sorry. I feel like let you guys down. I think I need Dust Bunny Time Out or something.

PLEASE Jennie- as a straight mother of 3 kids, the fact that you took the time and effort to even attempt to go to Gay Rights rally (when you weren't feeling well in the first place) is above and beyond the call of duty. As I've said before, you are a TRUE Christian (even if you might still be going to Hell for that mouth of yours - and for your support of gay marriage). I love you! And I was able to get a picture elsewhere. XOXO

Los Angeles:

Dust Bunny GayInLA took the pictures above, and sent me the following email:

I wish I could send you dozens of photos that captured the energy and excitement of this event. Or photos of all the witty signs, hot papis, and drag queens in the crowd. But, these random crowd shots are all I have to offer. It was so thrilling to be a part of this that I didn't give a lot of thought to trying to capture it all on film. I hope you understand....

It was an amazing morning -- perfectly clear and sunny in the high 80s. We decided to take the subway from Hollywood into downtown where the rally was being held, and apparently so did thousands of other demonstrators. (I'm sure that for many people this was their first experience with LA mass transit.) There was a really festive mood as everyone carried their signs and banners down to the platform and squeezed into the train heading for the civic center. By the time we got there, the rally had already started and we could hear the crowd cheering for one of the speakers. I noticed that someone had managed to hang a large rainbow gay pride flag from the top of City Hall.

When we approached the rally, there was a small demonstration of anti-gay hatemongers but they were cordoned off behind barricades, a line of about 18 policemen, their row of motorcycles and a line of rally organizers. As everyone passed we just waved at them and blew them kisses, which seemed to infuriate them even more. The crowd was already so large that we could only get about a block from the stage where the speakers were. I heard crowd estimates from 12,000 to 30,000 and I truly believe it was at the higher end of that range.

The speakers included Mayor Villaraigosa, Darryl Stephens (from "Noah's Arc"), Matt Lucas (from "Little Britain") and Ricki Lake. The sea of signs, flags and banners was pretty amazing. Some of my favorite slogans included: "We can't all marry Liza Minelli" and "Til 52.5% do us part..." A lesbian couple near me had a sign that said "Together 27 Years. Married 5 Months. Invalidated by Majority Vote 10 Days Ago." After the speakers there was a march that went from City Hall to Chinatown.

Yes, there were lots of beefy hotties in tank tops. But what was inspiring was that there were also lots of older long-time gay couples -- and in the cult of youth and physicality that seems to define gay culture (at least in LA), that is usually a pretty invisible group. It was great to see gay men and lesbians -- and plenty of straight people too -- united in a common cause. My friend remarked that it was the first time for him that the "gay community" really felt like a community. Despite the hateful, disgraceful passage of Prop 8 here in California, there seemed to be an overwhelming sense of optimism among the crowd. Perhaps because everyone knew that this was part of a much bigger movement across the country and that ultimately we will be on the winning side.....


Honestly G, thank you. That was so beautifully written. DUST BUNNIES 4-EVAH!!

If I missed anybody, please send your pic/stories to daviddust@gmail.com.