Nancy Mancias

Nancy Mancias
Mancias
Glitter Bomb
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrVQ3xVB2BMIf elected back in 2011, GOP Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said he would reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (the ban on openly-gay service). He vetoed a bill in Minnesota that would have allowed surviving partners of same-sex couples the right to decide what to do with their loved one’s deceased body, because he believes in “traditional marriage”.In 2011, activists Nancy Mancias and Chelsea Byers with the women’s peace group CODEPINK took inspiration from Nick Espinosa who “glittered” Newt Gingrich at a conference in Minneapolis, and confronted Tim Pawlenty on his anti-gay and anti-reproductive rights stance at annual AHIP conference in San Francisco, with pink glitter and confetti in hand, voicing, “Where’s your courage to stand up for gay and reproductive rights? Welcome to San Francisco, home of gay hero Harvey Milk!”

“We are on the cusp of a important civil rights movement and Pawlenty wants to end it. He has expressed his desire to reinstate ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell'”, states CODEPINK campaigner Nancy Mancias. “He’s vetoed equal rights legislation in his home state of Minnesota.” Mancias and Byers were escorted out of the conference center by the San Francisco Police Department.

If a hateful politician or public figure comes to town, what’s the best way to challenge the spin? The imbalance of power are so that activists will forgo a meeting and move straight to a disruption, attempting to shut down or seriously disrupt an event to get their message across. With a small camera or smartphone, an activist’s message can easily upload to YouTube, sharing an action across the globe to inspire (or disgust) others. For a moment glitterbombing lit up protest tactics like a disco ball, creating fabulous spectacle and arts and craft road kill out of the target.

It’s important to stand up for our values and not give the target, Tim Pawlenty, a free pass when he made an appearance in San Francisco, a city known for its long fighting history for equal rights. The battle against Proposition 8 was still thick in the air. The spirit of Harvey Milk was looking down on us! It was the perfect time for the Glitterati to strike!

Nancy L. Mancias is a campaign organizer for CODEPINK. An anti-war advocate, Mancias has been actively trying to bring the troops home from their overseas misadventures. She has also been part of the movement against torture and a proponent of closing the prison in Guantánamo. She is a believer in accountability for war crimes. She alerts people around the country when war criminals will be speaking, encouraging them to try to make a citizen’s arrest or some ruckus. Like many in the anti-war movement, Mancias views her work against drones as a natural extension of her peace efforts.

Chelsea Byers Chelsea grew into her place in the world through a well-nurtured compost of radical tactics and has since become a passionate advocate for voting rights. She sees radical tactics as a necessary complement to mainstream democratic principles and has dedicated her life to toeing the line until critical thought prevails. Chelsea spent the 2012 election training, organizing, and empowering student leaders to step up and become a voice of change at her alma mater, Northern Arizona University. Now, Chelsea actively works between the fringe and the mainstream, finding ways to pull more people forward, together.