Enough is Enough Rally (and photos)

Just got back from covering the Enough is Enough (otherwise known as make Brian Tamaki Prime Minister and Mouth of God) march and rally.

They really need to get some image advisors to tell them how it looks to have the front of the march led by all these guys in black t-shirts (almost everyone watching said they should be brown 🙂 marching in straight lines together and thrusting one arm in the air. And just to top it off four of the “leaders” had long black leather trenchcoats. It was almost funny (but in fact slightly disturbing).

I expect Destiny will be quite pleased with the turnout (good not great) and they might well make an appearance in the polls as they fight with Christian Heritage and United Future for the fundamentalist vote.

This slightly out of focus photo shows the marchers arriving in their black shirts.

Above is a view from the steps of the centre of the Destiny crowd.

Sue Bradford and Georgina Beyer showing their rainbow colours. I quipped to a journo that it was probably very hard for Sue to see a protest march and not be part of it 🙂

The destiny people encircled the 500 – 1,000 anti destiny people who got there early and very nicely took the centre of the grounds. There were probably around 3,000 – 4,000 destiny people so they were outnumbered but still very effective and visible making lots of noise (except during the national anthem which was a good call).

Another shot of the anti destiny group. The media and I were hoping that a huge brawl would erupt (I could have sold the photos 🙂 but one banner being pulled down (the wellington women’s refuge banner strangely) was the extent of any physical confrontation.

I find it interesting that christian fundamentalists are in fact similar to muslim fundamentalists – they want a country governed by their version of God’s law, rather a country based on tolerance for diversity.