Occupy Lassen's Rally Tomorrow In Los Feliz

Wednesday night I was doing a little research for my story on the just-resigned Pakistani ambassador, Husain Haqqani when this notice popped up on my Facebook page:


I've shopped in Nature Mart several times a week for over twenty years. Seeing it taken over by a family obsessed with homophobia sent me right to my car with a handful of fliers I had made for tomorrow's big demonstration. When I got there I found half a dozen determined, convivial young women, some of whom I had met at the first Lassen's demonstration last Saturday. I learned something very important from them.

We stood in front of the store with signs and there were two missions. My mission was basically to offer information about the new owners, a reprint of the post I first wrote on the take-over a few weeks ago. My thought was that people had invested in driving, or in a few cases walking, to the store on the night before Thanksgiving and there would be no stopping them. Instead they could take home the flier, read it and decide to shop elsewhere in the future.

The determined, convivial young women were having no part of that. They were there to get people to turn around and drive home. And they were so persuasive that it worked. Well, some people did buy into my idea-- and some people weren't open to our position no matter what-- but almost 40% of the people we talked to-- asking them to not shop at Lassen's if they favor equality-- actually did turn around and drive away. I was amazed and gratified. These women just floored me with their spirit and their abilities! No one was shying away from confrontation.

Some people-- and there are congenital conservatives born into this world-- just didn't want anything to do with us or our information. Some even got angry at being approached. How dare we! I found it enlightening to experience some of the reactions. Most were excellent of course but one angry little fat man started screaming "Faggots" at us last week. I spoke to a less volatile woman who had voted against Prop 8-- with the Mormons-- and her perspective was that everybody had the right to their own beliefs. There was nothing I could say about gay people's right to equality under the law that would shake her and eventually she started talking about gays seducing children in schools. Facts didn't matter to her either. People with conservative mindsets hate facts. I wish I could afford copies of Corey Robin's wonderful book, The Reactionary Mind to hand out at the rally.

They also have a Facebook page dedicated to the boycott and a petition to the new owner's you can sign if you'd like to. The peaceful demonstration on Hillhurst in Los Feliz starts tomorrow at 2pm and should last 'til around 5 or 6. It should be fun and if you're anywhere around the Silverlake, Atwater, Echo Park, Hollywood area think about coming by. There's plenty of free parking. Hate is not organic.