Protesting Promise Keepers

This picture comes from early in the morning before the Chicago event. It was a rather odd deal in its way. A woman's group protested at the rally. They all seemed like decent people to me. I didn't get a chance to talk with them much though.

For the most part they kept themselves busy passing out brochures that pointed out that the Promise Keepers organization was taking in an extremely large amount of money. The brochures also noted that the organization spent not a penny of this money on stopping domestic abuse or helping women in other ways.

The Woman's Action Coalition in action

While I watched (and took notes) two different news crews filmed the group, causing the group to begin to protest a little earlier than they had planned.

This is understandable and typical.

What followed, however, made me wonder if I had stepped into a Woody Allen movie. The protesters (who held signs saying things like "God made Fags and Dykes Too") began to chant. They drummed on plastic buckets turned upside down and repeated a variety of slogans. I wrote them all down, but I'll only share a few here.

"Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay Promise Keepers Go Away!" "Promise Keepers, we want to know. Where does all your money go?" "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Promise Keepers have got to go!" A few Promise Keepers attempted to talk with them. Most just ignored them. One person I talked to later said that his group of people had stopped in front of the group and prayed for them. The protesters were understandably annoyed.

I find myself sympathetic to both groups but doubt if they made any impact on each other at all.

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