Gay Rodeo update & trying to organize protest this weekend

August 15, 2008

Our demonstrations in the Castro the last 2 weekends appear to be a great success. Last Saturday, 6 of us joined a few rodeo promoters on the corner of 18th & Castro (spilling over to the corner across the street) and overwhelmed them, and we remained for a while after they left. The public was very supportive - more than we expected. Many people thanked us or told us they completely agree. One person did accuse of being anti-gay because we're targeting the gay rodeo, but we explained that we campaign against other rodeos as well, but most of us are gay so this is very personal to us. One of my friends talked to the rodeo president for a while, explaining that he was from a Texas rodeo background and would love to attend the rodeo, but he knows what the animals go through. He suggested that they change it to a C/W party and redefine what it means to be a gay cowboy, by instead becoming compassionate stewarts for the animals - perhaps including donating some of their proceeds to Farm Sanctuary.

Thanks again to everyone who helped with this. I know it's a relatively small issue in the grand scheme of animal abuse, but it's very personal to some of us, and seems to be something we can pretty easily put an end to. Also, I'm trying to quickly organize a protest at the entrance to the rodeo grounds in La Honda (a little south of Pacifica), either Saturday or Sunday (8/16 & 17), depending on what works for people. Please let me know if you're able to help - I can only do this if I can get at least a couple of other people to help. I'll be driving from San Francisco so I can provide the ride.

Additionally, if you're willing to contact the businesses and people supporting the rodeo, please email me and I'll send you the contact list (I can't post email addresses here). Below is a news article about our demonstration 2 Saturdays ago (there were actually 7 of us there), and several letters to the editors of the gay papers. http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news & article=3225

http://ebar.com/openforum/letters/letter.php?sec=letters & id=166

http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article & article_id=8747

http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article & article_id=8789

AndrewBe the filmmaker you always wanted to be—learn how to burn a DVD with Windows®. Make your smash hit

August 17, 2008

Hi all,

Wanted to add a couple of comments:

First, Andrew, thank you for organizing these protests and providing an organized opportunity for others to participate.

> I know it's a relatively small issue in the grand scheme of animal abuse, but it's very personal to some of us, and seems to be something we can pretty easily put an end to.

Second, number-wise, animals killed for food is the largest area of animal exploitation. Yet to each individual animal suffering for human abuse as entertainment, clothing, food, medical research, etc., each issue is important ..

And, often becoming aware of one type of animal abuse is the first step to more of an expanding consciousness about the plight of animals, so all those people that think today about abuse of animals at rodeos and circuses could be tomorrow's vegetarians/vegans.

So keep up the good work everyone!

Cheers,

Tammy

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