I want to be clear that I am FOR gay marriage. I myself am not gay but I have always been for equal rights (and if you think that this is not a civil rights issue, I strongly disagree) and also have a gay friend. I never thought Prop 8 would ever pass in California. I knew it could, but I because I had faith in our state's willingness to accept change, I never thought it would actually happen.
I took this photo while trying to get shots for my school's newspaper, especially of any conflict. There had been fights between students and a church mob two days before where an older 50-something man pushed down two young girls holding "No on 8" signs on a busy street, put one girl in a choke hold, ripped up and threw their signs in a creek. Alternately, students were yelling, spitting, and throwing cigarettes on the "Yes on 8" group at our school. I was trying to get some candid shots but once they saw my camera, they all posed with the signs and smiled.
As an acting photojournalist it was unethical for me to express my opinions to the people I was interviewing and photographing and I just had to tell them that I wasn't allowed to tell them my views on the issue. Still, I came very close when I was having a conversation with a proponant for prop 8. I was trying to understand why he wanted Prop 8 to pass. He started listing off quotes from the Bible and going off into completely random directions that (at least to my knowledge) had no point. I kept having to ask him, "But what does that have to do with gay marriage?" He still kept rattling off useless facts and trying to convince me that it wasn't a civil rights issue but a moral one. I asked him, "So then what do you have against gay people." And he whispered to me, "To be honest, everything about them simply disgusts me and they make me sick." I stepped back from him wanted to yell or slap him but held myself back. He apparently noticed my animosity at his comment and said, "And I can see this is where we disagree, so I am walking away now." I was really glad he did at that moment.
This photo shows African Americans supporting Prop 8. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but when the votes came in and the studies surrounding it, it was very clear. The African Americans who turned out to vote for Obama, for the most part, voted for Prop 8. I was very suprised at the irony, especially with comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert saying such things as, "How quickly the opressed becomes the opressor." I don't think it really has to do with that. I think that culturally black people tend to be more religious and religion is tied to anti-gay rights. Also it seems that being gay in a black community is especially taboo for some weird reason. Of course not all black people are against gay marriage and I interviewed several who said they were voting "No on 8" and when their friends quesioned them, they asked accusingly, "What did gay people ever do to you? I don't care what they do."
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