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Eye Witness to Love Won Out

Jim Johnson over at Straight, Not Narrow, demonstrated with several others in protest of Focus on the Faggot's, um Family's anti-gay conference Love Won Out. Jim shares some of what happened during the demonstration, who spoke and how he felt being part of it all.
Demonstrating Against "Love Won Out" Conference

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Bruce Garrett said…
I was there too. Saw Jim Johnson there, Lance again (small world) and Wayne Besen, and Steve, a friend of Mike Airhart's whose full name and blog I am ashamed to admit I have forgotten (again). I got to play chauffeur for Lance and Wayne and Steve between sessions. Lance went to D.C. Pride between sessions and after the protests...his first Pride ever.

It was a good crowd. Older mostly then the one at LIA last Monday, mostly church groups. It was very heartwarming to see all the concern in the crowd about the negative messages about gay people being discussed at Love Won Out.

Steve figured they had about 300 people inside...not a huge crowd by their standards (Lance said they got over a thousand in St. Louis). He figured the place was only three-forths full.

A new guy from LIA came out to the picket line and walked over to Lance. Said he wanted to hear firsthand from the kid about why he was so upset about his experience at LIA. Lance gave him an earful.

Got another chance to wave to John Smid as he left the conference. Alas, I had no yellow banner to wave at him this time. He looked like a man who was just trying to get out of Dodge as fast as he could.

I'll have photos up on my blog tomorrow.
9:28 PM
Peterson Toscano said…
Bruce, you really get around!

So glad you were there to be counted and to help out. Sounds like you all did an amazing job.

Can't wait to see your photos.
12:50 AM
Bruce Garrett said…
This has been one reparative therapy protesting week for me, hasn't it?

And...Steve Boese was the guy who's name I was forgetting yesterday. He was there, he was actually inside the damn thing listening to what was going on. He said it's hard to just blend into the crowd when you aren't laughing at all the jokes or standing up and applauding every anti-gay speaker. So they finally recognised him.
10:02 AM
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