I am in Yosemite National Park, taking a break for a few days. Throughout this trip, I have made time to take breaks at National Parks across America. These breaks give me a chance to stop driving, get out of the van, and recharge my batteries. This stop is much needed. I am exhausted.
We have traveled almost 12,000 miles in 63 days, driven through 32 states, filmed dozens of interviews, and spoken to hundreds of people. There are two amazing parts to this trip. The first part is all the incredible activists we are talking to in each state. The second part is the unbelivable places we get to go. Yosemite is one of those places. I have never been so awestruck in my life.
I don’t have Internet or cell service here (except for this one spot I am in right now, being eaten alive by mosquitos, using my iPhone to write this post.) I have been writing each day and will update this site on Sunday when I reach San Francisco. So check back late Sunday night or Monday morning for the latest posts. Until then…I’m going to climb a rock to the top of a waterfall. Peace!
This is the most amazing place I’ve ever been. The cliff, waterfalls, trees, and meadows are spectacular. I’ve never experienced anything like this. Today I hiked to two waterfalls, walked through a meadow, and drove up to Glacier Point to look over Yosemite Valley. The beauty of this place washes over me and I feel nothing but serenity. I also saw a bear…in the wild. It was incredible. I will upload pictures soon.
I’m in Yosemite National Park. I slept in my tent until 2:00 PM today. I am exhausted. The constant moving, wear and tear on my body from this trip has completely wiped me out. I need a break, and I have a good feeling about this place. I need to recharge my batteries before I can take on the second half of this trip. We’ve got a lot more states to hit and a ton more people to interview. I’m hoping Yosemite can breathe some life back into me.
We left Santa Cruz this morning; Potter on a bus to San Francisco and me in the van to Yosemite. Potter wanted to get to the city to hit up some bars and experience the nightlife. I wanted to get away into nature and relax under the trees. After a long drive, I made it to Yosemite National Park and set up camp. I’ve got a great campsite and am excited to check out the park tomorrow. I am exhausted and going to sleep now.
On the way to Yosemite I saw a car that had a “Yes on 8” bumper sticker. Yuck.
This is our last day in Santa Cruz. I really like this little city. The downtown, beach, and boardwalk are beautiful. Potter and I went on a roller coaster ride. It was intense. We got a great view of the city from the top of the ride…as we swung around and upside. We’ve also met a bunch a great people. I gave a little talk about Driving Equality to a local LGBT group. It’s been a fun time here.
We are in Santa Cruz, California. This city is a haven for liberals and lefties like me. The first night we were here, we saw two guys walking down the street holding hands. The downtown area is great and the beach is beautiful. We spoke with some local folks about the queer community and the politics of Santa Cruz. We are working on setting up interviews with the Diversity Center, the university, and the owner of the local gay bar. Lots of good stuff to come.
We drove up the California coast on Route 1 today. The scenery was incredible. We were driving on the cliffs and could see the ocean crashing on the rocks below. It was a long, windy drive from San Luis Obispo to Santa Cruz. That is not a drive I’d like to do everyday. I am exhausted. We found a campsite at a nearby State Park and set up our tents. Tomorrow we plan on interviewing folks at the local Diversity Center. Santa Cruz seems like an awesome town. I’m excited to explore a little more.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Nowhere in the Declaration of Independence does it say, “except the gays.” ‘Nuff said.
We celebrated Independence Day at Pismo Beach, near San Luis Obispo. The fireworks were incredible. We could see the waves of the Pacific crashing on the beach under the glow of the fireworks. Tomorrow we head up the coast and into Santa Cruz.
Check out the video below of Potter running from a train near where we watched the fireworks.
We had an exciting day in West Hollywood! We got a tour of the city from my good friend, Marc Solomon. We zoomed around town in his convertible Mini Cooper. I worked for Marc for years when he was the Executive Director of MassEquality. He is now the Marriage Director for Equality California. Marc is changed with repealing Prop 8 and restoring marriage equality to the state of California.
After a whirlwind tour of the city, Potter and I took a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. We checked out the Walk of Fame and paid our respects at Michael Jackson’s star. His star was covered with flowers and notes. The crowd around the star was a constant 50 people large. The star was roped off and two security gaurds tried to move people along the sidewalk. Check out my video of the chaotic scene here.
After being uber-tourists; taking pictures of the stars and the handprints of famous people, we headed back to the city of West Hollywood to interview Mayor John Duran. John has been a queer activist for over 30 years. This interview, his story, was one of the best of the trip. You can watch a brief clip below, but my blog camera battery died before we got to the really good stuff.
John started as an AIDS activist in the 1980’s. He is a lawyer and represented ACTUP in court. In 1992, he helped get Bill Clinton elected. The next year he was arrested for protesting in front of the White House when Clinton signed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” into law. He later ran for office and was elected to the West Hollywood City Council. John has been Mayor of West Hollywood twice and is up for the position again next year.
After interviewing the Mayor, we were invited out to dinner with Marc and his parents, who are in town for a visit. We had a great time at dinner. Marc’s parents are amazing people and are a LOT of fun. It was great to spend time with them and to hang out with Marc again.
After dinner, we headed down to Santa Monica Boulevard. The bars were teeming with queers. We did an interview with Marc right on the street, as queers of all kinds walked by. It was an exciting interview. Marc talked with us about the fight for LGBT equality, the repeal of Prop 8, and the best way to win our fight. Check out a clip of the interview below. (TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES! I’ll upload the video of Marc as soon as I can get it to work. It should be up by 6pm PST July 6th.)
If you like what we are doing, please help us continue the project by making a contribution.
(This video was taken with the ‘behind-the-scenes’ blog camera and is not the actual footage for the documentary.)
This is a medical marijuana shop. Check out the sign in the widow! It is a campaign sign for the Mayor, John Duran, who we interviewed earlier.
We spent the day in Los Angeles, talking with folks from Equality California. We conducted an interview with Daniel Gould, the Network Coordinator for California LGBT Health and Human Services Network. This was a great interview. Daniel talk with us about the need for LGBT health services and the care that is specific to the LGBT community. We talked about the most vulnerable members of our queer community, especially LGBT elders and transgendered folks. LGBT health is often overlooked when discussing the struggles facing our community. The work Daniel is doing is extremely important and I hope more states will follow his path. Check out a clip of our interview with Daniel below.
If you like what we are doing, please help us continue the project by making a contribution.
(This video was taken with the ‘behind-the-scenes’ blog camera and is not the actual footage for the documentary.)
Today, at noon, marked the halfway point of our journey. We have been on the road for 53 days and have 54 days to go. It’s been a great adventure so far and there is a lot more to do.
We are in Los Angeles tonight after a long, hot day in the desert. We woke up this morning and headed back to Salvation Mountain. We spent the first part of the day with Leonard Knight, the creator of Salvation Mountain. Leonard’s mission is to spread the message, “God Is Love”. He has spent the past 25 years creating a huge mountain to spread the word. Leonard has painted the mountain with bible versus and positive messages like, “Love Is Universal”.
I decided to interview Leonard and ask him if gays and lesbians are included in God’s universal love. I was worried that, because Leonard is so deeply devoted to the bible, he would tell me that homosexuality is wrong and that God didn’t include gays in his plan. Instead, Leonard told me to keep it simple; God loves everyone. He told me that any person or church who denies a certain group of people is wrong and should repent and ask Jesus for forgiveness. This was one of the most incredible interviews and amazing places of the trip. Take a few minutes to watch the video below. You can also check out the pictures from Salvation Mountain here.
We left Salvation Mountain in the afternoon and headed toward Los Angeles. On our way, there was a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. We were not anywhere near the border, but still, every car traveling north on this road had to stop. We were asked our citizenship status and the contents of the van. I told the officer that we are American citizens and that we had film and camping equipment in the van. He asked me if he could look in the back of the van. I said no. He asked me why not. I told him that there was no reason for him to look in the back and that I had the right to refuse a search under the 4th Amendment. He asked me to pull the van over to the side.
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both” – Benjamin Franklin
This is the fourth time we have been search, and it is the second unconstitutional search. The first unconstitutional search was at a checkpoint between New Mexico and Texas. The van was searched without my permission and without a warrant. The Sheriff told me that he had the right to search the vehicle because I was acting suspicious. When I inquired as to what in my behavior had been suspicious, the Sheriff replied, “you were asking questions.” I don’t believe asking questions counts as probable cause. The next search was when I crossed the border from Mexico to the United States. This search was legal, as I was crossing a national border and, agreeing with the reasoning behind it, consented to the search. The third search was also legal. It happened right before we crossed the Hoover Dam. I had no problem allowing the officers to look in the van, as it makes sense to have security for the dam. This fourth search was the worst and the most blatantly unconstitutional.
After I pulled the van over, a higher ranking agent came over and asked me to open the van doors. I told him that I would not because he did not have a warrant to search the vehicle. He called over another agent, the handler of the drug-dog. This agent told me that the drug-dog got a “hit” on the van. This was suspicious since the dog just came over and had not even circled the van yet. We were told to step out of the vehicle and hand over our identification. I got out and they put my hands above my head to search me. When I turned around to question the agent, he grabbed my arms and told me I would be in the dirt if I didn’t keep my hands up. They frisked me down, unconstitutionally searching my person. Then they commenced to unconstitutionally search the vehicle.
The 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported
by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
They kept us on the side of the road for over an hour while the dog and agents went through every inch of the van. The agent in charge told me that I was ignorant and foolish. I told him that he was violating my 4th Amendment rights. We argued about the balance between security and civil liberties for the entire time we were detained. One of the agents told me that if I loved my country and the Constitution so much, I should join the military. I told him that I am gay and not allowed to serve my country. The agent in charge did not believe that it is illegal for gays to serve. I told him that it was also legal to fire someone for being gay in most of the country. He told me that I was wrong and that I didn’t know what I was talking about. He was ignorant about his own ignorance…and that is the exact same phrase that he used on me.
The fact is that they wanted to search the van, I did not give permission, and they did not have a warrant. So the agents lied and said that the drug-dog could smell drugs in the van. This lie then gave them the authority to search the vehicle. They were hoping that, because I refused a search, they would find something in the van. But alas, after over an hour of searching, they found no drugs, not even a trace of drugs. The agents then told me that the dog must have picked up on the scent of drugs that had been in the van at one time, perhaps from the previous owner. This is ridiculous. I bought the van two months ago from a dealership. The van is a cargo van; all plastic and metal. When I purchased the vehicle, it had been cleaned out and was covered in Amoral. I then cleaned the van again, with soap and water to wash out the slippery Amoral coating. After all of this cleaning, there is no way there could be a scent of drugs, especially a scent that a dog could smell from outside the van. The nail in the coffin though is that I was searched by a drug dog less than a month ago in Texas, and that dog smelled nothing.
The problem is that there is no way to record or print out a finding from the dog. The agents were able to lie about the dog picking up a scent in order to search the van and violate the 4th Amendment. It was interesting to watch them try to cover up the lie by telling me that I must have picked up a passenger who had drugs on them at one point or that the previous owner must have had drugs in the vehicle. It was ridiculous.
When they finally let us go, after keeping us in the 120 degree heat for over an hour, I started driving away, reached down to grab my atlas to look at the map, and see that the page had been halfway ripped out of the book. This would not be such a big deal, except that I just bought the atlas a week before, and that it was an expensive edition that I got because I love maps. I turned the van around and headed back to the checkpoint. I told the agents that they had damaged a piece of my property during the search. The agent in charge said that there was nothing they could do about that. I told him that was not acceptable. Another agent stepped up and said there was a form we could file to get reimbursed for the damaged property. We waited another 20 minutes to get the form and for the agent to take down our information. Then we were off to L.A.
I felt dejected and powerless after this encounter with law enforcement. I always refuse searches as a matter of principal. Sure it would be easier to let them search the vehicle, but I have the right to refuse. These agents trampled on my rights and trampled on the Constitution. It takes courage and strength to stand up for freedom and civil liberties. It is tough, but I will continue to do the right thing. I will not allow the terrorists to win by letting our civil liberties be trounced on by overzealous law enforcement.
Before leaving the checkpoint, I gave the agents a Driving Equality pamphlet with the website address on it. I told them to check the site tonight because we’d be talking about them on the blog. The agents were not bad people, in fact, they were nice guys. They were just brainwashed into believing that safety is more important than freedom. If we give up our civil liberties, our freedom, then the terrorist win. If we are not free, then what are we fighting to protect?
I will be filing a report against the unconstitutional search. I don’t expect it to go anywhere, but I will do my duty as an American, and fight for freedom and our Constitution.
Here is the relevant Supreme Court decision (Almeida-Sanchez v. United States) that states:
Held: The warrantless search of petitioner’s automobile, made without probable cause or consent, violated the Fourth Amendment
Justice Stewart, in delivering the majority opinion of the court writes:
It is not enough to argue, as does the Government, that the problem of deterring unlawful entry by aliens across long expanses of national boundaries is a serious one. The needs of law enforcement stand in constant tension with the Constitution’s protections of the individual against certain exercises of official power. It is precisely the predictability of these pressures that counsels a resolute loyalty to constitutional safeguards. It is well to recall the words of Mr. Justice Jackson, soon after his return from the Nuremberg Trials:
“These [Fourth Amendment rights], I protest, are not mere second-class rights, but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government.”
Even in Carroll v. United States, the Supreme Court decision which gave police the right to search automobiles without a warrant, Justice Taft wrote:
It would be intolerable and unreasonable if a prohibition agent were authorized to stop every automobile on the chance of finding liquor, and thus subject all persons lawfully using the highways to the inconvenience and indignity of such a search. Travelers may be so stopped in crossing an international boundary because of national self protection reasonably requiring one entering the country to identify himself as entitled to come in, and his belongings as effects which may be lawfully brought in. But those lawfully within the country, entitled to use the public highways, have a right to free passage without interruption or search unless there is known to a competent official authorized to search, probable cause for believing that their vehicles are carrying contraband or illegal merchandise.
It is clear that my 4th Amendment rights were violated when the Border Patrol searched my vehicle without a warrant, consent, or probably cause.
If you like what we are doing, please help us continue the project by making a contribution.
(This video was taken with the ‘behind-the-scenes’ blog camera and is not the actual footage for the documentary.)
We are up and running! The van is fixed and we are on the road again. We left Arizona and headed toward California. Check out pictures of Sedona here. And check out pictures of Jerome here.
Our drive today was pretty exciting. We drove through a sand dune desert which made me think I was in Saudi Arabia. Then we found ourselves in green pastures. We saw two huge birds and an owl! As we approached the Salton Sea, I made up my mind to see Salvation Mountain and Slab City. Have you seen “Into the Wild”? If you haven’t seen the film yet, you should see it. I sometimes say: “Into the Wild” + “Milk” = Driving Equality.
If you have seen the movie, then you might remember that Chris (Alexander Supertramp) goes to Slab City to visit his hippies friends. Slab City is an old military base that has been bulldozed to the ground. All that remains are the foundations, or slabs. Hippies, squatters, and outcasts of all kinds live there for free in the middle of the desert. At the entrance of Slab City is Salvation Mountain. If you have seen “Into the Wild,” then you should remember the colorful, man-made, God-loving mountain that Chris visits. He gets a tour by the actual creator of Salvation Mountain, Leonard Knight. (Check out the picture below from “Into the Wild”.)
Today we visited Slab City and Salvation Mountain. We got there kind of late, but Leonard came out to greet us and give us a tour of Salvation Mountain. We are sleeping near this incredible sight tonight and will go back to see the mountain during the day. We plan on interviewing Leonard to hear his opinion about equal rights for gays and lesbians. Leonard’s whole message, the mountains he has spent 24 years creating, is that God is Love. I’m interested to hear what he has to say about gay love and the bible.
We had a day off today, as the van will be in the shop until tomorrow. Since nothing important happened today, I’ll tell you about my special connection to Arizona.
When I was 17 years old, I ran away from home. (Everything is cool now. My relationship with my parents is amazing. They are both huge supporters and incredible people.) When I was 18, I took off across the country. I wanted to hit the road and experience life. My friend Ben and I traveled throughout the U.S. for months. We explored the East Coast, the South, and then we came to Arizona. My friend from high school, Mindi (Hi!), had moved out to Cottonwood, Arizona, a little town near Sedona. We decided to visit her while we were in the state. We ended up falling in love with the area.
We met, for lack of a better way to describe them, a bunch of traveling hippies. We set up camp in the National Forest, with all the other travelers. There were about 80 of us living in the desert. It could be likened to a hippie commune of sorts. I was drawn to the freedom, the community, the nature, and the adventure of it all. I had a lot of amazing experiences while living out there.
I returned to Massachusetts for a few months and then headed back to Arizona. This time I lived with my friend Mindi (Thank you Mindi!). I had some court fees to pay off (I used to be a pretty rowdy kid) and Mindi let me stay with her while I made some money. We explored the desert together and had a lot of fun. Eventually, I bought a jeep and drove back to Massachusetts.
A few months later, I met Potter and told him I was going back to Arizona. He wanted to come. We packed up the jeep and headed West. This was my third time living in the Sedona, Arizona area. We came back to Massachusetts about six months later and I hadn’t been back since.
I ended up living on the road for three years. I lived everywhere, from the city streets, to the woods of New England, from a coastal beach, to the deserts of the Southwest. I met people from all over the world living in the smallest towns and the biggest cities of the United States. It was quite an adventure.
The first time I came out here was nine years ago. The last time I was here was seven years ago. I have missed it. I have missed the desert, Sedona, Cottonwood, and Jerome. I love Jerome. That is why I decided to get my first tattoo in Jerome.
I promised I would tell you about my connection to Arizona. That is my story (at least the parts that I care to make public). Below are some pictures from the time that I was a traveling hippie on the road of peace, love, and freedom (or something like that). You can see more pictures here. You can also see pictures of Stage Stop, the place I used to live, here
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that launched the struggle for LGBTQ rights. A few years ago, I met a Stonewall Veteran. David was actually at the Stonewall Inn the night that the police busted in and the riots started. I wrote about his experience on my other blog a couple years ago. It’s a great story and an amazing part of LGBTQ history. Check it out here.
We were supposed to head down to Phoenix today to have another roundtable discussion. Unfortunately, the van had other plans. We spent the first part of the day in Jerome…I’ll tell you about that later. When we got back to the campsite, we packed up the van and got ready to head toward Phoenix. But the van wouldn’t start. We are used to battery trouble and grabbed the jumper cables and began looking around for a jump. We found a willing jumper, but the car still wouldn’t start. At this point we figured the battery must be completely dead. We called AAA in hopes of getting a new battery installed. About an hour later the tow-truck showed up with a new battery. But that was not the problem. Connecting some wires, the tow-truck driver discovered that our alternator was dead and needed to be replaced. We never made it to Phoenix and hope to get the van repaired tomorrow.
Thanks to John and Steen for all their hard working in setting up the events in Arizona. They started the state’s chapter of Marriage Equality USA.
I said I’d tell you more about our trip to Jerome. (This is where my parents should stop reading. Hi Mom and Dad: You can skip this part and go here instead. Thanks for reading this post. Come back tomorrow for the next update.)
For the rest of you; here’s the story. Potter and I have been talking about getting tattoos. (Mom: I told you to stop reading.) Jerome, Arizona is a very special place to me. I spent a lot of time there when I was 18. I promise I will tell you more about that before I leave Arizona. Jerome is a little half-ghost-town up in the mountains, about 45 minutes outside of Sedona. The roads are steep and windy and the houses are falling down…literally, the houses are sliding down the mountain. Jerome used to be a mining town about 100 years ago. When the mountain was tapped out, the town was deserted. Then, in the 1960’s, a bunch of hippies, artists, bikers, and other outcasts took over the dilapidated town. Now the little mountain town is part tourist attraction and part haven for hippies, artists, bikers, and outcasts. Needless to say, I feel right at home in Jerome.
I decided that if I was to get a tattoo, it would have to be in Jerome. Potter and I headed up the mountain and into the tattoo parlor. I was first. It took about 15 minutes and hurt like hell. It was my first tattoo. Then it was Potter’s turn. He already had two other tattoos. Potter got “MY SOUL IS RESTED” on his right arm. It is a saying from the Civil Rights Movement. He can explain it better on his blog which should be up and running soon. (I’ll put a link in as soon as it’s up.) I got “TODAY” tattooed on my left inner wrist. It is how I view life; Live for today. I’ll post more tattoo photos as soon as I upload them from Potter’s camera.
The end of the day was quite exciting as well. I heard some nearby campers freaking out about a black widow spider that was under their picnic table. I decided to look under our table as well. We had our very own poisonous black widow spider…about 7 feet from my tent. We used the iPhone’s internet capability to positively identify the spider and her web. I took some pictures of Rhonda (Potter named her) and we went to bed. I don’t think we’ll be using the picnic table tonight.
We spent the day in Prescott, Arizona. It was our pleasure to meet with folks at the Prescott Pride Center (PPC). We had a roundtable discussion about the issues facing LGBTQ people in rural Arizona. I am very impressed with the work being done at the PPC, especially in a city of under 50,000 people. Frankie Reynolds, the Executive Director of PPC, is a true activist who knows how to get things done. I’d like to see other cities take a page from Frankie’s playbook and step up their LGBTQ outreach/support networks.
We hung out at the Precott Pride Center for about three hours. We talked with folks about the local LGBTQ community, the marriage amendment battles, and how to win full equality. Arizona is an interesting state because it is the only state to actually defeat an anti-gay marriage ballot measure. In 2006, the voters did not pass prop 107, which would have banned same-sex marriage and civil unions. The successful campaign has been attributed to the fact that prop 107 would have denied rights from heterosexual couples looking for partnership benefits. This victory was celebrated around the country, as it was the first state to beat an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, in 2008, the anti-gay forces came back with another amendment. Prop 102 was approved by the voters and defined marriage as between one man and one woman only. This time around, the battle focused on same-sex couples only.
After our roundtable discussion, Frankie shared with us some pictures from when the Pride Center was vandalized a few years ago. Teenagers spray-painted anti-gay epitaphs and pictures all over the building. The police caught the kids who did it and mediation sessions followed between the teenagers and the Pride Center. Fortunately, the heterosexual community rallied behind the Pride Center and condemned the anti-gay attacks.
I have a video clip of our roundtable discussion at the Prescott Pride Center, but the file is corrupt and not uploading to my computer. I’ll keep working on it. For now, take a look at some of the pictures here.
Posted by Chris Mason 
Driving Equality 