He collapsed at my feet during the protest. The Christian protesters cursed him. More after the flip.
I was front and center at San Francisco's City Hall today, on a photo assignment for The Bilerico Project and IN La Magazine.
There were maybe a tad under a thousand people outside City Hall and maybe a dozen who were anti-gay protesters. They were very coarse and ugly individuals.
One gentleman, a supporter dressed head to toe in leather, was playing his guitar and suddenly dropped like a tree at my feet, before I could bend down to check his pulse, cops swarmed the guy and started CPR. They were very professional.
Sadly, I think he might have died. They resuscitated him for 20 minutes and he did not respond. They started an IV of 1 liter of saline and gave him O2. About 10 minutes in, he swallowed and kinda of coughed and the crowd cheered.
It was so quick. He just fell. Within minutes he was ashen and grey.
At this point I was crying like a child - and yes, I did take a pic of the guy who gave me sympathy hugs. The guitar player was so happy and joyful and he just dropped - reminded me of Tim Russert.
Sympathy Hugger
One of the Christian protesters (pictured below) were chanting at his body - "Satan Got You!" "What is the Devil whispering in your ear about now?"
Total Asshole
I yelled at the guy, "If you are such a Christian, why aren't you praying for the guy dying on the concrete?" The protester replied, "God killed him for loving fags!!" The cops even stepped in and told the guy to shut his mouth.
I have no idea what the ultimate fate of the guitar player is. I have high hopes he will live to sing another day.
Click HERE for the entire Flickr photoset.
UPDATE: SFGate mentions the man playing the song "Going to the Chapel."