By Caitlyn Gilvary

A small crowd of both University members and local citizens gathered across the street from Public Safety last Saturday to protest the recent passing of Proposition 8 in California.

Enraged protestors chanted, “What do we want? Marriage equality!” against the rain and honking traffic, as they held up signs supporting their cause.

The University’s newly formed National Pride Network, which will officially launch in February, organized the protest. Due to the short notice of the protest, the NPA relied on word of mouth and Facebook event invitations to rally supporters for the protest.

Regardless of timing constraints the protest was able to claim a turnout of more than 50 people. Christian Fuscarino, freshman who is executive director of the NPN, was pleased with the turnout and awaits the groups inauguration.

However, Stephanie and Lucy Lagravinese of Nassau County, who went to Canada to marry, were not pleased with the turnout. They expressed the wishes that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) of Long Island had been made aware of the protest, and were certain that the turnout would have then been greater had the group participated. Stephanie Lagravinese spoke for both the Lagravineses in praising Fuscarino’s efforts. “Christian has done a wonderful job of putting this all together. We applaud him.” The Lagravineses came out with the intentions of supporting other homosexual couples that want to get married. Lucy Lagravinese said, “People shouldn’t have to leave their country or even their state if they want to get married.”

Elyse Suter, a freshman, was happy to have stumbled upon the demonstration and observed that the protest was “not well advertised.”

“The event itself was very well organized. It seemed like a lot of people from the surrounding area were there. I just wish I had known about it ahead of time. I know a lot more people would have been happy to protest Prop 8,” Suter said.

Short notice aside, the enthusiasm of protesters was only matched by the enthusiasm of passersby who obliged to signs asking to “Honk if You Want to Stop the H8.” It was not long before the rain had moved from drizzle to downpour, and although the demonstrators didn’t let it dampen their spirits initially, it proved to be a hassle and ended the protest a half an hour earlier than intended.

(Caitlyn Gilvary)