Protesters Respond to Vallejo Mayor’s Anti-LGBT Remarks in Northern California
December 2, 2009
Vallejo, CA residents gathered on city hall Tuesday evening to protest Mayor Osby Davis’ recent anti-LGBT remarks. In an interview with The New York Times, Davis said that LGBT people are “committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven.” Mayor Davis has since apologized for the comment.
In a demonstration led by the openly gay reverend Lou Bordisso, hundreds of community members rallied at Vallejo City Hall to condemn Davis’ homophobic remarks.
“I’ve lived in Vallejo for 25 years and now. He’s asking me to go back in the closet and I will not do that,” local resident Wendell Quigley told KTVU-TV.
Mayor Davis insists, however, that he had no such intentions. In a statement released on Tuesday, Davis apologized to his constituents, but said his “words were taken out of context”:
“To those I have offended by my comments, I apologize. My words were taken out of context. I care for the entire community and my desire is to build consensus on our diversity. Let me be clear, I have and will stand against hatred, discrimination and divisiveness wherever they exist.”
In response, The New York Times published a significant portion of the Davis interview to its website late Tuesday evening. That context, however, has done little to quell LGBT locals who still consider Davis’ comments to be extremely offensive. The Vallejo Times Herald even published a letter to the editor on Wednesday that calls for Davis’s resignation:
Instead, Rev. Lou Bordisso told San Jose Mercury News that public censure would be more appropriate and asked that Davis “show solidarity with all community groups by appointing openly gay people to the Human Relations Commission.”
GLAAD has reached out to community members in Vallejo and will work closely with people on the ground to ensure fair, accurate, and inclusive coverage of Mayor Osby Davis’ homophobic remarks.
Updates can be found on GLAADblog.org.
Related Posts:Join the Impact: Saturday, January 10
January 7, 2009
Join the Impact is coordinating a nationwide protest of the Defenase of Marriage Act, or DOMA. Here’s information from the Join the Impact website:
On Saturday January 10th, 2009
We ask you to join us in making the LARGEST IMPACT YET!
Let’s take our message all the way up the ladder to President Elect Barack Obama himself!
On January 10th, we will come together as one UNITED FRONT asking the LGBTQ community to join us in signing an Open Letter to President Barack Obama, during a NATIONAL DOMA PROTEST.
This letter will remind President Elect Barack Obama of the promises he made to us.
It will also serve as a pledge from our community that we will hold him to his promises and help him achieve them.
We can’t just put a letter online and ask that people sign it.
We need to take to the streets. As we all know…
VISIBILITY IS THE KEY TO EQUALITY!
Outreach & Education Will End Discrimination.
We MUST Infiltrate, to Educate, and Stop Hate!
HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Find out who is organizing a DOMA Protest in your area. (Quick Link to State Page) If there isn’t one, then volunteer to organize an event, or organize to collect signatures!
- Download the Open Letter and take to the streets to gain signatures.
- Get one million signatures (in total across the nation) by the end of the day on January 10th.
- Mail the collected signatures to the JTI clearinghouse address BY DEADLINE: Join The Impact, PO Box 141491, Columbus, OH 43214
NOTE:
If you can’t organize a protest or one is not organized in your city (understandable with the holidays and all), then don’t worry, you can still participate:
-
- Sign up to organize a carpool in your area that gets everyone to the closest protest
- Get a group of friends together to canvas your neighborhood to get signatures for the open letter.
The Point of this event…
… to gather at least one million signatures on an Open Letter to President Barack Obama
to be delivered to him on his first day in office.
The event itself will vary by location depending on organizers availability and local sense of how to best do it. Please make posts below to discuss ideas…
Join Us on January 10th for 1 Million Signatures to Repeal DOMA!
IMPORTANT:
We all have to use the official letter and signature page (downloaded from this website) so that they can be joined together and sent to President Obama as one cohesive piece. If you are not using a letter that was downloaded from this website, your signatures will not be sent in.
It is VERY IMPORTANT that the signature be on the official signature sheet or one of the sheets provided on this site over the past 2 weeks. Due to many great ideas, the signature sheets have evolved since the first version. For those of you that took early initiative using an early version of the signature sheet, all of your hard work is still completely valid and extremely appreciated! Any signature sheet not made by JTI will not be valid for legal reasons.
HERE ARE THE DETAILS:
Print one copy of the ‘Open Letter to Obama” for each set of signature sheets:
Show your signers the full letter.
Print as many of the signature sheets as you think you can fill, each page holds 20 signatures. Sheets with less than 20 will still be accepted.
Please ask your signers if they have already signed, try to avoid duplicates.
Your signers DO NOT need to include their address, only the ZIP CODE is required.
NO ONE will contact your signers, they are not going to be put on any mailing list.
Media Keeping Up With Prop 8 Protests
November 18, 2008
During this extremely active time in the LGBT community, people have been voicing their opinions in record numbers across the country about the anti-gay ballot measures that passed in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas and the media is taking note.
This past weekend brought a great amount of coverage, as protests occurred across the country. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, protests were organized in all 50 states on Saturday, as well as cities in Canada, England and Australia.
From Friday through Sunday, CNN alone presented at least nine segments discussing the post-Proposition 8 environment.
On Friday, November 14th, guest-host Joy Behar interviewed high-profile guests during a broadcast of Larry King Live dedicated to the aftermath of the passage of Prop 8. In addition to live broadcasts of Prop 8 protests, Behar interviewed Cynthia Nixon, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Dan Savage and anti-gay pastors Reverend Jim Garlow and Bishop Harry Jackson.
On Saturday, November 15th, CNN covered the Prop 8 related protests and issues surrounding the protests throughout the day, with multiple segments on CNN Newsroom and a segment on CNN Saturday Morning.
We have been monitoring the coverage very closely and released a set of guidelines last week to assist news leaders in reporting fairly and accurately on the flux of protests being organized. The overall coverage surrounding the Prop 8 related protests this past weekend was predominantly fair and GLAAD will continue to assist the media to assure that it stays that way.
First Person: Making Our Voices Heard in New York City
November 13, 2008
The scene: Thousands of people making their voices heard about the passage of Proposition 8 outside a Mormon Temple in Manhattan. As I approached the crowd, video camera in tow, I could already hear the various chants and cheers from people waving their homemade signs – at least 10,000, according to reports from organizers picked up by the AP.
After an hour outside the temple, we marched down along Broadway. Although police lined the crowd, the peaceful nature of the event left the officers to maintaining traffic flow and keeping the marchers moving. We finally stopped at Columbus Circle, where participants waved their signs and cheered under the bright lights of the Time Warner Center.
Our community suffered considerable setbacks last week. As a California expat living in New York City, I cringed as the “yes” votes came in for Proposition 8 on Election Day. I hoped against hope the next few days and lamented when it was officially announced the initiative had passed. Many friends back home shared the same sentiment: “I can’t believe this happened. It feels like a personal attack on my life, my family.” And this wasn’t exclusive just to my homestate. I heard the same from friends in Arizona, Arkansas and Florida.
But this wasn’t a time for anger or blame. We had to gather together as a community and announce ourselves. And the crowd Wednesday night was nothing less than a community coming together. Thousands of friends and family gathered for a shared purpose. I saw people holding hands, hugging, sharing in this experience that although the passage of these anti-gay amendments was a setback, there was still hope.
And then there was Whoopi. Ms. Goldberg herself joined the march holding a sign that read “For My Friends, Equal Rights.” As I talked with her, she told me about sharing in our community’s pain, that despite the excitement over Obama’s election, we still had a ways to go. “Whenever a door opens, the ceiling comes crashing down.” Other celebrities, including lesbian comedian Judy Gold and gay advice columnist Dan Savage, also showed up to give their support.
And the media took notice of the event’s impact. News trucks for the local ABC, NBC and CW affiliates parked right by the crowd, with reporters and cameramen scrambling to film the marchers. National news organizations joined in soon afterwards. I was pleasantly surprised when a CNN microphone quickly sidled up next to me while talking with Whoopi. Hopefully the media will continue to cover our stories as we work towards equality.
Stay tuned tomorrow for exclusive video coverage of the event!
