A Strange Night in the Castro

Wow. That was weird.

It's still gorgeous outside - my guess is low 70s, and perfectly still weather.

We decided to have dinner at one of the sushi joints on Castro Street. When we walked down (about 6:30) we noticed a group of people assembled on the corner of Castro and 18th. That's not unusual because that is literally the heart of the Castro, so things pertaining to the community usually form there. I noticed that everyone in this group was dressed in white, and we also noticed that they were standing together, singing. It was odd.

So, we had dinner. It was a long dinner. We sat at the sushi bar, and the sushi chefs kept giving us new yummy treats. :) But, I digress...

Two bottles of Saki, and several platters of sushi later...

When we left the restaurant, we saw about half a dozen cop cars parked around the corner of Castro and 18th. We went over to see what all the hub bub was about. From what we could gather, a group of Prop 8 SUPPORTERS thought it would be a good idea to come to the heart of the Castro and raise a ruckus.

Now, seriously. That's just stupid.

Obviously, they came to cause trouble. They came to slap our community in the face.
Basically, they came to be complete asses.

It was breaking up by the time we got there, so we started to head home.

Now, as I mentioned, it's a really warm evening out. That alone is reason for a lot of people to come flocking to Castro Street. As we walked up the street towards our block, we passed many people who were walking down to Castro.

That's when we got to the intersection of our block - which is about 3 blocks from Castro Street.

I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I was too stunned at that moment. There was literally a police barricade blocking our block. Yep - a line of police officers spread across the street. We had to show I.D. to prove that we lived here.

After we were let through, I asked one of the officers what was going on.

His response, "I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me!".

From what I gathered, the Prop 8 Supporters had actually marched down our block, fairly recently, and must have stirred up some trouble if there was now this much police presense. That's really strange to me, because as I said, we're a few blocks away from the heart of things.

Anyhow, I'm afraid that chaos of some kind is bound to happen tonight. Between the crowds of people coming in because of the warm weather, coupled with the Stupid Prop 8 people trying to raise a ruckus... well, that's just not going to go over well. I hope things don't get out of control.

I expect we'll hear something about this in the news later.