protest

Kiss the anti-gay away

(También en Español)

Two Guys Kiss at Santorum Rally

About three minutes and 35 seconds into Santorum’s speech at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Ill., Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford screamed, “MIC Check!” Then they made-out to the horror and fascination of the 2,100 people at the rally. The men, along with a female companion, were removed from the event as attendees shouted, “U.S.A.”

Tross and Clifford aren’t saying whether they’re gay. They claim their orientation isn’t the point, Santorum’s antigay baiting is.

It has been used before at Westboro Baptist protests, and it occurs to me that Rick Santorum isn’t the only right wing zealot masquerading as a politician who deserves this.

Mass same-sex kiss-ins could become a formidable technique of non-violent civil disobedience!

Groups of us can go to public hearings of discriminatory legislation and policy, candidate rallies, and anti-marriage events, etc., whenever and wherever, and stage a timed mass kiss-in, something that would be as effective as sit-ins but much prettier and much harder to penalize. We could ask our allies to join in, putting their lips where their mouths are, staging kisses with same-sex allies.

We would drive the opposition crazy with this newfound, in-your-face strategy, or at least help them along their path of personal self-destruction. That would be a campaign I could get my lips around.

US Congress Expands New Anti-Protest Law

(También en Español)

News of Note: US Congress expands authoritarian anti-protest law

A bill passed Monday in the US House of Representatives and Thursday in the Senate would expand existing anti-protest laws that make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by a lengthy prison term—to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.”

The bill—H.R. 347, or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011”—was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, while only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted against the bill in the House of Representatives (the bill passed 388-3). Not a single Democratic politician voted against the bill.

What about our 1st Amendment right to peaceful assembly? With the Occupy movement sweeping the globe last year and the US Presidential election continuing to gain momentum, this bill has come at just the right time to squash any civil response or resistance. As John F. Kennedy famously said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” I hope that it doesn’t ever have to come to that.

Creative Commons image by: Lutz