More than 20,000 protesters spilled into the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and even Modesto on Saturday in mostly peaceful demonstrations over passage of Proposition 8, the statewide ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage.
The unfolding street scenes underscored the racial and religious tensions that have surfaced since Tuesday's vote threw into question the legality of 18,000 marriages of gay and lesbian couples and foreclosed the option for any more.
Police estimated that 12,500 boisterous marchers converged about 6 p.m. at Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards in Silver Lake near the site of the former Black Cat bar, which the city recently designated a historic-cultural monument for its '60s role as home of the local gay rights movement.
Police guided the demonstrators through the streets for more than three hours without major confrontations. No arrests were reported.
Other demonstrations, including one that attracted up to 10,000 people in San Diego, popped up across the state. At each rally, participants vented frustration and anger over the ballot item that amends the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized" in California.
Steve Ramos, 46, of Los Angeles carried a banner through the streets of Silver Lake with the spray-painted words "Teach tolerance, not hate."
Supporters of the ballot proposition, he said, mixed "religion with politics" and missed the main point. "Everyone should have equal rights."
Others carried candles and posters of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous quotations. Henry Chach, a 26-year-old information technology worker from West Covina, held a placard that read, "I have a dream too."
The gay community, he said, has clearly failed to persuade blacks, who voted heavily in favor of Proposition 8, that theirs is also a struggle for civil rights.
The Silver Lake rally began with fiery speeches from the bed of a pickup.
Among the speakers was Robin Tyler, half of the lesbian couple who were denied a marriage license in 2004 and challenged that rejection all the way to the California Supreme Court.
The pair married after the court cleared the way for gay weddings, but the legal status of such marriages is now uncertain.
Tyler expressed frustration over the leadership of the unsuccessful campaign to defeat the ballot measure and lashed out at those who supported it.
