“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – activist, author, nobel peace prize winner, and holocaust survivor elie wiesel.

i went out to protest today. protesting from half a world away, against a law which doesn’t even directly affect me. protesting in a tiny group, in the grey day, in front of a symbolic, but empty government building.

my husband didn’t get it. he didn’t understand why i felt the need to speak out in such a small, ineffectual way. i was surprised – we’d just had a conversation about how much anti-gay discrimination there is in the u.s., on a local and national level, about how people’s partners from other countries can’t even come to america to live with them because their partnerships or marriages are not recognised.

but it doesn’t affect you, he said. it won’t change anything.

and i asked him if by that logic, whites shouldn’t have bothered protesting against jim crow laws. if civilians the world over should not have protested the invasion of iraq. if westerners shouldn’t have bothered protesting against apartheid. if students shouldn’t have protested for democracy in tiananmen square.

sometimes protests effect great transformation, and sometimes they don’t.

but you protest because some violations and crimes against humanity are too large, too egregious, for silence. you protest because standing up is the right thing to do, because it is important to register your dissent. because if enough people start paying attention to injustices, if the collective voice becomes loud enough, then an opportunity to achieve change can be created. if one person protests, then 10 people may protest. if hundreds of people protest, then thousands may march. if thousands march, then millions may vote. if millions vote, then anything is possible.

there were only a few people at the protest in london today. there were thousands and thousands who turned out all over california, and other cities across the u.s.

i don’t know if any of this will bring about change. i only know that you have to speak up if you want to be heard.

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