The roving antiglobalization street movement, which has captured the interest of many queer leftists, descended on San Diego June 24 to protest the Biotechnology Industry Association conference.
Several hundred protesters, accompanied by several hundred police officers, marched from Balboa Park to the city's Convention Center in opposition to human cloning, designer babies, genetically engineered food, patenting of human genes and genetic testing for diseases.
Protesters' signs suggested they also oppose consumerism, capitalism, free trade and multinational corporations.
In addition to gays, there were protest contingents of environmentalists, anarchists, animal-rights activists, socialists, Latinos, and people opposed to the imprisonment of Abu-Jamal Mumia.
"The corporate colonization of life itself is the newest, most insidious form of globalization," said The Ruckus Society, one of the protest organizers.
"The same corporations that brought us DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange now want to feed the world's hungry and develop medicines to save your ailing grandma."