Several thousand marched in a sea of signs and flags from Volunteer Park to Westlake Saturday to protest the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“When I heard about Prop. 8, the first thing I thought was ‘When is this going to happen here?’” said senior Yecelica Valdivia, a programmer at the Q Center at the UW.

The Q Center works to reduce discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity and provides its members with advice and resources, according to its Web site.

Valdivia received an e-mail from the Q Center about the anti-Proposition 8 rallies, which took place in several cities nationwide this past weekend, and said that soon the e-mail was circulated everywhere.

“I thought, ‘What can we, even though we live in a different state, how can we be in solidarity with people who are being affected down there?’” she said.

Speakers at the rally included Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims.

“One thing that really affected me was the fact that we had the mayor speaking,” senior Stephanie Adler said. “I think that he has really done things that have affected the gay community, like the sweeps [of homeless off the streets].”

There are a lot of people within the queer community that are affected by the homeless sweeps, Adler said.

“It’s something that really hasn’t been addressed,” she said. “I was concerned that he was there and saying one thing and doing another.”

Valdivia felt that while the turnout at the rally was amazing, it could have focused on more than just Proposition 8, like issues of racism within the queer community and the fact that many Mormons and people of color were blamed for the passage of Proposition 8.

“The whole rally itself didn’t address that issue,” she said. “It doesn’t help when you tear each other apart.”

Freshman Fausto Rivera agreed. Rivera is a member of Bend-it, a collective of artists and activists that puts on a queer arts festival and works to create a community for youth.

“I thought overall the rally was an amazing experience,” he said. “Our message is that Prop. 8 is messed up, but so is racism. We’re against this terrible backlash that happened in the gay community against African-Americans and others.”

Fausto said he wished the rally could have been more holistic in its approach and that more issues could have been encompassed.

“Marriage itself doesn’t equal equality,” he said. “You might not think that these things affect you, but it’s all one struggle. It’s not about blaming one group or the other. We’re all part of the same group, and we’re fighting for the same rights.”

Reach managing editor Arla Shephard at news@dailyuw.com.