Please help me share this news story. 

I am a LAPD credentialed news cameraman from a queer news outlet and I was roughed up by the "Bruno" film crew who later chanted "Yes On 8" at me.  Here is the podcast I've posted:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYSfOU5hO4E 

 On November 2, 2008, I was shooting a "No On 8" Rally which joined up with a "Yes on 8" protest happening at an intersection in front of city hall.  Sacha Baron Cohen appeared with the "Yes On 8" people and I began shooting the news of a civil right moment being punked for a new comedy movie.  His crew of 8 or 9, which was most likely shooting without location permits (would the city really grant a permit to shoot a commercial movie - especially a "Borat"-type production - at location of potential civil unrest with heavy police presence?) surrounded me and began to shove and physically yank me to try and prevent me from filming what was happening at a public event.

 In the course, I was injured in the shoulder and back and have filed a battery report with the LAPD.

 What is truly disturbing is that later, I saw the same crew again waiting around the corner for a production van to pick them up.  I started to roll tape, in the hopes of shooting facial evidence later for the police, when a crew member comes up with a "Yes On 8" sign and hits me with it as he tries to block my camera shot.  Then several crew members, including the guy with the sign, start chanting "Yes On 8" at me.

 I was wearing a t-shirt that could easily have identified me as potentially gay at that moment to the "Bruno" crew, an 28th Annual International Mr. Leather shirt.  I was also visible throughout the rally, talking with friends in the "No On 8" side.  In other words, I don't think it was chance, the "Bruno" crew being angry with me because the "scuffle" earlier had caused the police to cease the "Bruno" production.

Why did this irate "Bruno" crew, who'd been closed down by the police because they "thugged" a legit news cameraman, start chanting "Yes On 8"?  To me, it seemed homophobic.

So, as I note at the end of the video, Sacha Baron Cohen leaches commercial opportunity from an historic civil rights expression, punking it for his next "Bruno" movie, but has he ever donated a dime to help stop Proposition 8?

 Now that it looks like Prop 8 will be approved by a majority of voters in California, it makes events like this look particularly odious.