feelin' the vibe

I was a bit late walkin' to the rally last night and didn't know it, so I got unnerved by the sight of too many 17th St. gurls walkin' in the WRONG direction from the rally. However, as I approached the rally site, it was both good and bad to see such a large crowd. Good that so many people showed up, but bad in the safety category. The small square in front of the new HRC building just isn't big enough to support a large group of activists - especially during rush hour at the cross section of two major streets near downtown DC. So people were spilling onto the streets, across to opposite blocks. Me and several other people were frequently concerned that someone was gonna get run over by a car. Just like the last rally I was at for Matthew Shephard, HRC was most concerened with it's own welfare and issues, not of it's members and supporters. Let's hope their next public event will show concerns for the people. Folks, we have plenty of large parks in DC, and if the rugby team can find an alternate field due to weather and unexpected cancellations, so can you. To hell with showcasing your new building, I'm not down with smooshed queers or traffic problems.

But it was a good rally overall if you ignored the safety problems. The highlight of the evening was listening to the 13 year-old son of a lesbian couple speak out about how marriage restrictions to his parents affected him. Dan showed up but quickly disappeared into the crowd, but was very warm and cuddly. A friend from Montreal joined me, and we quickly joined Mitzh, Chrisafer, and Gurl to watch from a safer vantage point kitty corner from the rally. Kitty as in catty, to tell the truth.

A special shout out to the cutie who came up to me and said hi and that he read this blog: my e-mail address is in the lower right corner of this blog...clearly you're not shy. Keep it up and e-mail me.
>; )

Later on we all went to Windows for a few. Mitzh and Gurl were charmed by my French friend, and are gonna have my head if we don't meet up again. I certainly will, but I was beat from a long day. I dropped him off at JRs and walked back home up 17th street, and felt a vibe on the street that I hadn't felt there in a long time. Many of the rally attendees were sharing dinner up and down the street, and there was a tangible feel of excitement in the air, one of hope and progress. And that's a good thing.