Protests against Proposition 8 resort to violence

Tobias Davis
UNL Mechanical Engineering Major


In California, homosexual protesters against the recently passed proposition 8 are resorting to violence to argue their view.

A group of 10-20 Christians had been gathered on a street corner in San Francisco's "Castro" district, quietly praying and singing, when a group of men began yelling and shouting profanities, warning the Christians to leave the district. The group of Christians were backed into a corner, had hot coffee poured on some of them, were hit on the head, and some Christians were pushed to the ground and kicked. The mob-like crowd which was violently harassing the Christians started taking pictures, shouting "We know where you live" and "We're going to kill you," and continuously blowing shrieking whistles directly in their ears. Police officers in raid gear had to be called to get the Christians safely out, with the mob of homosexuals following for several blocks, still shouting and screaming.

In another related event, a little old lady showed up to a homosexual protest holding a simple cross, as a simple counter-protest to the larger group. Within seconds the mob had torn the cross from her hands, broken it apart on the ground, surrounded her, and began shouting and pushing at her. In this case a News Agency was there, and it did not appear that the Police were called.

While it might be nice to believe that this was an isolated event, the truth is that most of the homosexual community in California has resorted to these violent and under-handed tactics. Searching news sources online for terms such as "california church vandalism" pulled up immediate hits for recent events related to violence protesting proposition 8.

Online responses to this violence vary, one particular response worth noting is the "Those Christians had it coming" attitude. This argument essentially says the Christians should have known they would be assaulted, so it was their fault. This same argument was, fairly recently, used to argue that it was a woman's fault she was sexually assaulted if she went out at night, since "She should have known better." Of course, this argument does not stand up to reason, both in the case of a woman being assaulted at night, and in the case of Christians being assaulted in San Francisco, and was thrown out of courts fairly quickly.

In 1998 when Eric Rudolph bombed two abortion clinics and claimed it was a Christian thing to do, Christians and the pro-life community as a whole spoke out immediately and very publicly against the use of violence in any way. Trust of the Christian and pro-life community was maintained because of this outcry against violence from that community. The Eric Rudolphs are not considered part of that community because of their response. However, no similar immediate public response has been made from the homosexual community, so it is unsure what the response of the Country will be to a people who allow their community to commit acts of violence without repercussion.