This past Friday, police had to come between Christianists who were preaching on the corner of Castro and 18th and a group of angry locals. Here's an excerpt from a KTVU story-

In San Francisco's Castro District, people on both sides of the same-sex marriage controversy confronted each other on Friday night, as police tried to keep the peace. Proposition 8 passed in a close vote and eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Members of the gay community said that almost every Friday night, a Christian group meets at the corner of Castro and 18th Streets. They try to convert gays and lesbians into a straight lifestyle. This Friday night, the message didn't go over well. Some gays and lesbians reacted by trying to chase the group out of the Castro."Their rights were respected," said Joe Schmitz, an opponent of Prop 8. "They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood. "San Francisco Police officers in riot gear formed a line and escorted the religious group into a van to safely get them out of the area. Members of the gay community insisted that their reaction to the Christian group was spontaneous. "It was not an organized thing. We're tired of it. It's not religious. It's not a racial thing. It's about hate. We're trying to send a message across the world that we're standing up and we don't want this to go on anymore," said Adam Quintero.

Some reports have been coming in on right-wing blogs saying that the Christians were physically attacked. There was also the incident in Palm Springs last week that many Christianist blogs are reporting on.

I understand that we are angry and we must stand up for our civil rights, but we must remember that the only way to win this battle is through peaceful protest. If we take the moral high-ground, there is no way they can stop us. If we let this conflict devolve into violence, many won't be sympathetic with our cause. We can scream and yell, but let's refrain from physically touching any of those who want to deny us of our civil rights, regardless of what hateful bigots they might be. It will only undermine our cause and it's certainly not the press we need. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi managed to effect great change through repeatedly telling their followers to be peaceful and creative in all their protest. Here's a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. about Thoreau's essay on civil disobedience-

During my early college days I read Thoreau's essay on civil disobedience for the first time. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I re-read the work several times. I became convinced then that non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. It goes without saying that the teachings of Thoreau are alive today, indeed, they are more alive today than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, it is an outgrowth of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.

So let's keep fighting, and protesting, and sitting in at Mormon temples. Just remember to avoid any physical contact with these Christianists who will use anything they can against us.