Thousands of demonstrators met together in front of City Hall Saturday morning to participate in the nationwide protest against the Nov. 4 passing of Proposition 8.

“I am angry and I’m angry at injustice,” said Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon, former senior minister at the Metropolitan Community Church in San Francisco. “And that can propel us forward, but anger is also because we are hurt; because the wounds go deep.”

Across the country tens of thousands of people showed up to rally in such cities as New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Organizers involved with the Seattle-based Internet blog “Join the Impact,” put together many of the protests.

Cat Kim, a "Join the Impact" organizer based in San Francisco, predicted only a few hundred people would join the rally in San Francisco. However, the 500 estimated bloomed to over 5,000 as warm and sunny weather accompanied he Bay Area’s biggest protest since the passing of Proposition 8.

The demonstrators held up “No on Prop. 8” campaign posters and homemade signs while guest speakers encouraged a peaceful protest. Speakers included Rev. Amos Brown, Assemblyman Mark Leno, and Supervisor Tom Ammiano.

“It’s not about sex, boys and girls, it’s about love,” Ammiano announced. “Homophobia, racism, and sexism, they all serve the same master and it's now time to bitch-slap that master.”

Many SF State students attended the protest, including the president of the campus group Feminism in Action, Allison Mingus, who also organized the “Vote down Propositions 4 & 8” campaign on campus before the elections.

“I think it’s atrocious that California passed it,” said Mingus, a senior majoring in women studies. “It’s very emotional to me because I have gay family members and gay friends. I was fighting this for them.”

The rally at City Hall continued along Market Street toward the Castro, where hundreds of protesters paraded alongside the busy traffic. The march continued along Church Street until police turned the marchers back toward Union Square.