PIONEERS IN THE MAKING

Brian Baumgardner:  Gay Rights Activist.  Arrested.

NOW!! this is a gay icon!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not that fucking fat ass Levi Johnston or that doofus homophobe Aaron Schock.

We'll look back 20-30 years from now at these pictures and at these men and see what today's activism for gay rights paved the way for the future.

Twelve people were arrested after requesting marriage licenses and after being refused staged a sit-in:

On the day hundreds of gay and lesbian couples statewide planned to obtain their long-awaited marriage licenses, a crowd of about 50 people gathered at the county clerk's office Thursday to protest a federal judge's stay of a federal ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

Three people were taken away in plastic handcuffs by sheriff's deputies early in the demonstration and an additional nine people were removed later. A deputy said they were detained for blocking access to a county office.

Tony and Tyler Dylan-Hyde and at least one other couple came to the county clerk's office this morning at 8 a.m. asking to receive their marriage license.

"We believe that county officials and the Attorney General have the authority and the obligation to allow marriage licenses to proceed based on both federal court findings and that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional and the governor's filings in Prop. 8 cases," Tyler Dylan-Hyde said. "We are asking you to do what's right."

County Clerk David Butler had asked the sit-in group to move and allow the public access to the office around 9 a.m. The group refused, saying they were protecting their civil rights.

Shouting, "We shall not be moved. No equality. No business as usual," two members of the group said they were disappointed they could not get married today.