The Countertop Chronicles

There are many in the gay community who are neither left wing nor progressives. And there are many that are. And like Big Gay Al, there are many that just want to be left alone with their animals.

That’s cool.

But the problem – at least from this heterosexuals standpoint – is that the visible leadership of the gay community (and the community’s most outwardly visible members) are largely seen as being in lock step with the looney left.

Case in point. I had no idea there was a massive march going on this weekend in DC and so I decided to take my 7 year old and my 2 1/2 year old to the Air and Space Museum (really, is there any place cooler than a building full of fighter planes and rocket ships???). It was a heck of a crowd, while not as big as the Tea Party protest, the march was pretty impressive and had maybe 75% of the people the tea part did. For a single issue, that impacts 10% of the population, thats astounding and very impressive.

My office is basically at the Corner of 1st and Constitution. We parked in my garage and began walking over – sometime around 3:30pm.

As a father of two young children, I was shocked as I made it to the reflecting pool that the speaker started saying Fuck This and Fuck That and Fuck Fuck Fuck. I heard the F Bomb dropped no less than 7 times in the course of 2 or 3 minutes – at which point I stopped crossing the mall and decided to get as far away as possible. Mature, married people with children don’t haphazardly – especially over a loudspeaker – drop the F bomb repeatedly while within earshot of lots of children on the mall. It was very disheartening to hear (I’m not a prude – I’ve got a filthy mouth, just not in front of kids).

This though paled in comparison to the speaker I heard as we walked back (about 5:15 pm) who was shouting about standing arm in arm with the fellow members of the progressive cause. She then spent about 5 minutes reciting every fruity left wing group out there – from ANSWER and MOVE ON to La Cosa something or other, the labor movement, Cesear Chavez and the farm workers, the environmentalist movement, PETA and the animal rights movement, the anti war movement, the hippy movement, the peace movement, etc etc etc. She capped it off by singing the praises of the NAACP (which ironically, last time I checked, represented a membership that is far far far more hostile to gay rights than any other group in America).

In any case, it was very disturbing because it painted – to any one who heard it for just the 5 minutes I was on the mall – the gay community as being nothing more than toady liberals for the Democratic party.

This is a major gay problem. I don’t know who organized the march – but the organizers should have done (based only on the two examples I heard) a much better job of ensuring the speakers stayed on a non partisan, family friendly message. That’s what its about, right?? Gays could be normal just like you and me and make fine parents and have as stable (or more stable) relationships as anyone else. Yet to non gays who didn’t attend the rally but just overheard a few minutes of the speakers while enjoying a gorgeous day on the mall – that wasn’t the message projected.

What I was left with was the clear impression that GAY = Vulgar Foul Mouthed Angry Left Wing Crack Pot Lefty Democrat partisan kooks. Which was very disappointing.

Lucky me, my office is basically at 101 Constitution and I have parking under the building so I was only a block away from the protest.

Some thoughts.

1. There is no where near 2 million people who showed up. Not even close. The blogsphere is doing itself a huge disservice by insisting on trumpeting that number.

Now, having said that, it is still – by far – the largest crowd I’ve EVER seen for a protest in DC in my 12 years living here. Outside of the 4th of July or an Innauguration, there are never that many people who show up for anything.

Still, I think the press isn’t that off when they report tens of thousands. Could there have been 200,000? Sure, but I doubt it. At the time, after walking back along the mall I estimated 75 or 80k. There were lots of other folks always walking about, so its tough to estimate, but maybe there were another 100k spread out throught the city. Maybe.

Look, the west lawn was packed PACKED. And it was packed back to 3rd street. But half that area is taken up by the reflecting pool.

There were a fair amount of people on the mall from 3rd to 4th street, but not anymore than would be there at any other Saturday event. By the time you got to 7th street, there was no one (and of course, 7th street back to the Main Smithsonian Building was the National Black Family Reunion (and they weren’t protesting). Oh yeah, there was also a triathalon or something going on down by the river. They were set up on the polo fields over by the Lincoln Memorial. They weren’t protesting either.

2. The crowd was VERY well behaved. Almost too well behaved. In fact, itt was so well behaved there was nothing to report in the paper (remember, it doesn’t matter what they say, just spell my name correct).

3. As a result, no one in DC even knows it happened. Like I said, my office is 1 block from the capitol at the bottom of the hill on Constitution Ave. No one here that I’ve asked even knew there was an event.

Had they held this on a Tuesday morning though, and shut down DC – the message would have been received.

As it was, no one knows about it.

UPDATE

This is still largely a non event. I finding very few people in DC aware that it happened. That said, based on this graphic – from USA Today – I’m upgrading my estimate to about 250-300,000 people

The area in the first (left hand) ticketed seating part was packed, at a much higher density (but on less available land) then is allowed at the innauguration. Also, the area across 3rd street on the mall itself really had very few people. So – but the loss of numbers there was more than offset by the packed nature of the area closer to the Capitol (as the following pictures show – sorry they are from a blackberry, I forgot my camera at home).

Again, I’d say 250-300,000

The Police Barricade on 1st Street and Constitution, across from my office.

Walking into the crowd. This is still on 1st Street, by the Grant (I think that’s who it is) Circle – which is the end of the parking lot on PA Ave. The Crowd walked down this way to the West Front Lawn.

Looking down the parking lot towards PA Ave (That is the National Gallery of Art in the background)

This is actually from within the crowd, directly in front of the Capitol looking back towards the reflecting pool

Another shot, further to the House side, looking up towards the Capitol.

Gives you a sense of crowd density. Like I said, much greater than at the inauguration. If i can remember it, I’ll post the pictures from when i worked at Bush’s 2001 inauguration. I was an usher and actually had access to the platform, have a fantastic picture of the crowd from there. But I need to scan it in (that was back in the days before digital cameras)

For shits and giggles – this was a Pro Health Care rally they had up there on Sunday. Not quite sure what was up with it, since we didn’t bother to walk up – but there were some folks with pre printed signs saying Another Doctor for the Public Option.

It clearly paled in comparison.