Blog.WBRU

Update: Listen to Emily’s report from the State House:

Update 2: A montage of sound from the rally:

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Crowds at the Statehouse braved the rain Saturday to protest California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in that state. The focus, however, soon turned to Rhode Island’s own marriage policy.

Bearing signs declaring “Separate is Never Equal,” “Equality is for Everyone,” and “Str8t Family Against H8,” protestors joined in chants and cheers for marriage equality. Providence Mayor David Cicilline, State Senator Rhoda Perry, and officials from Marriage Equality RI and RI Pride spoke to a sea of supporters with umbrellas, praising their tenacity in the push for same-sex marriage rights.

The speakers denounced the vote in California as “discrimination” and promised to make Rhode Island the next state to legalize gay marriage, drawing enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. Protesters then settled into an emotional silence as RI Pride’s Rodney Davis broke into an impassioned song.

The planned program then gave way to impromptu speeches from the crowd. They told stories of their own struggles for marriage and rights, many expressing the joy they felt upon getting married across the border in Massachusetts. A student from Warwick Memorial High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance announced that she and her classmates had gathered more than 700 signatures on their Petition for Rhode Island Marriage Equality, an initiative they organized in reaction to the California vote.

One repeated theme of the day was the call to keep up momentum in the push for same-sex marriage in Rhode Island. Student groups and gay rights organizations plan to keep working until they achieve their goal.

-Emily Jones