Spring Break
Protests continue for third day
Andres Cuevas Jr.
Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: News
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People voiced their feelings on the proposition at an open mic on the steps of the Capitol.
David Cano, volunteer for the No on 8 campaign, organized people against Proposition 8 for two months and felt frustrated after the results on election night.
"I'm here to get people fired up and ready to fight for equality," Cano said.
Cano felt that people supporting the protests now should have been protesting the whole time and not just now that the proposition passed.
"I think people in California got too confident and were sure that 8 was not going to pass, but look what happened. It's the same thing that happened with Proposition 22," Cano said.
Proposition 22 prevented California from recognizing same-sex marriages and was passed in 2000, but was overruled by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
Abbi Novotny and Erica Retzer have been at the Capitol every night since the protests began.
"I was mad, depressed, pissed and crying after I heard that the proposition had passed; it was a big blow to our self-worth," Novotny said.
Retzer also took the news hard and deals with the aftermath everyday.
"It's very hard going to work with people supporting Prop. 8 who voted to take away my rights," Retzer said.
Miguel Diaz, senior health science and nursing major at Sacramento State, attended the protest and showed his support.
"It's completely unfair what they're doing, it's not like anyone gets hurt or their rights violated by this," Diaz said.
Sgt. Lewis A. Pease, Sacramento Police Department, said that the demonstrations had been peaceful and had not caused any major problems.
"They are expressing their first amendment right and have been good about it so far. Our role is to keep the peace," Pease said.
Jess Huggins and Tina Reynolds, activists and community organizers, started a website on Wednesday in reaction to the passed proposition.
"We were pretty sad after the election results came in and we lamented for a little, but right away we decided to do something about it," Huggins said.
Their website, EqualityActionNow.org, is dedicated to keeping the community informed of everything that's going on right now with the protests on the proposition.
There will be another protest at the Capitol on Saturday with the largest yet on Sunday.
Check back for updates as they are available.
Andres Cuevas can be reached at acuevas@statehornet.com
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