Edit: Since this is apparently NOT being read at the bottom of my post I will put it first.
Telling us that throwing glitter on someone is worthy of arrest and condemnation is just plain wrong. If you want to discuss the issues feel free to do so. But don't tell me a party favor is now a weapon. And don't tell me my life would be better off if homophobes are allowed to spread hate with impunity. I have the scars proving otherwise, I lived in California during the Prop 8 run up.
He was not afraid of Teh Ghey he was afraid of Teh Glitter.
A student was arrested for glittering Romney.
See the Secret Service bravely go after that "law breaker"?
(Reuters) - A Colorado student faced misdemeanor charges on Wednesday for flinging glitter toward Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in an increasingly frequent protest act some commentators say should be subject to prosecution.
The practice of "glitter bombing" has mainly been the domain of gay rights activists targeting Republican politicians and other public figures who oppose same-sex marriage.
But University of Colorado Boulder student Peter Smith, 20, told Reuters he threw glitter at Romney after the candidate's speech in Colorado on Tuesday to protest against his "general political philosophy," and not only his stance on gay marriage.
Now before anyone (you know who you are) starts bitching about how aggressive throwing glitter is let me tell you about another group of LGBT activists.
ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power). In the eighties (when I came out) and nineties Gay men were dying every day from a disease that was not receiving funding for studies. That religion was claiming was punishment. And people in the medical community and in the general population treated the patients like it was as communicable as the plague.
I would literally have dinner with someone and find out the next evening that they were now dead. People were scared. And when they did find drugs that would slow the disease the medications were prohibitively expensive.
A grass roots effort was formed to protest the ignoring of the loss of life and the associated greed. The first demonstration was at the Stock Market on Wall Street. They did not throw glitter they threw blood, sometimes contaminated by HIV; cat feces, spit, and other disgusting objects. They also did die ins and even interrupted the national news protesting ignoring the plight of those affected by HIV.
Spitting, and Other Methods of Communication
With his baby-blue eyes and honey-blond, cherubic curls, Michael Bellefountaine is the very picture of innocence. The 30-year-old activist sits at a Steiner Street cafe, demurely sipping a tall glass of hot chocolate as he explains what compels ACT UP San Francisco to yell and scream.
And, of course, spit.
"Spitting is kind of evening the playing field. People don't want to be spat on, so they'll listen to me," Bellefountaine, who says he is HIV-positive, insists brightly. "I'm hoping one day I won't have to spit on people to be heard."
But if spitting is a favorite mode of communication for ACT UP San Francisco, it is not the only one. Yelling and throwing disgusting things -- fake blood and kitty litter, for example -- are popular too.
At the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver, Canada, last July, ACT UP S.F. members stormed a panel discussion and doused two doctors, AIDS pioneers Paul Volberding and Margaret Fischl, with gallons of a cranberry juice solution concocted to look like blood while jumping on tables, tearing down microphones, and shouting obscenities. Later, San Francisco journalist Tim Kingston asked Bellefountaine about a disagreement he'd had with another activist. Bellefountaine spat in the reporter's face.
Telling us that throwing glitter on someone is worthy of arrest and condemnation is just plain wrong. If you want to discuss the issues feel free to do so. But don't tell me a party favor is now a weapon. And don't tell me my life would be better off if homophobes are allowed to spread hate with impunity. I have the scars proving otherwise, I lived in California during the Prop 8 run up.