Tonight I joined hundreds of people as we overtook the streets of Los Angeles in a rally expressing our community's passing (well, it's looking that way) of California Prop 8.

What was supposed to be a small rally on one city block became a 3 mile march that took people from the heart of West Hollywood to Beverly Hills, Hollywood, the Sunset Strip and as many places we could walk in three hours. After an hour of motivational speeches about equality and the future of gay rights, several groups of protesters decided to take action and march into the streets.

I joined a group of several hundred people including my friends Miguel & Nancy who walked up to the Sunset strip of Los Angeles - quite possibly one of the heaviest commuter streets in the city.

This is the strip where everyone goes to party - The Saddle Ranch, Hustler Store, straight bars galore, The Standard Hotel - I mean it is a busy area. And we stopped traffic. The police tried to keep the chaos to a minimum but the cars couldn't keep going. People were stopping their engines and getting out of their cars to cheer with us. Some weren't quite as happy as others but we were trying to make a statement. At every intersection we came to we'd stop for two minutes and chat. "Gay Straight Black White - Marriage is a civil right!" and my favorite "You gotta fight for your right to MARRY!"


Commuters were rolling down their windows and high fiving us. Everyone started freaking out when we realized that one of the drivers who we had stopped in traffic was LANCE BASS. He started cheering for us and screaming his support. The police just stood back and made sure it didn't get out of control but many of them seemed to be happy to be helping us.


We walked all the way to the heart of Hollywood where we met up with one of the other groups who had left down another street. My friend Barry was in that group and told me that they marched all the way to the CNN building and rallied around the windows.


At our spot at Hollywood and Highland we were greeted by riot cops and barricades. Many of us sat on the streets and refused to move and some people tried to storm the barricades. One protester broke free and jumped on top of a police car and was quickly arrested. His friend tried to get to him but the cops began beating him on the ground and arrested him too. Everyone was screaming "Let him go, let him go!" KTLA caught it all on tape and is featuring it on their main page - it's pretty scary.

After the arrests we hit the streets again and marched back to our rally points where the streets were even more crowded than when we left. People were being interviewed for the local stations and the police were everywhere. I was exhausted and limping (I only have one leg) so bad that my friends finally convinced me to come home which is where I am blogging for you from now. It was an inspiring time and the feelings I was having last night of disappointment and shame all disappeared as I watched my community come together. Let me know if anyone else was there. Here is more local news coverage of the rally and I'll add a bunch of photos in the morning.