[There was a video here]

Today, a handful of people favoring the preservation of an abstract institution over the quality of actual human lives took to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol for the March for Marriage, which was organized by the hate group the National Organization for Marriage. Usual suspects like Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee showed up to spout the usual rhetoric: ensuring that gay people can't get married is about love not hate, kids need a mother and a father, people need the religious freedom to discriminate against whomever they arbitrarily choose, and gay people are bullies for fighting back at the o.g. bullies who go out of their way to interfere with and cast judgement on their lives. There was also the repeated claim that gay marriage has never been enacted by popular vote, which is just bullshit. Shocking that the "traditional marriage" crowd would resort to lies to keep people persuaded.

New York Senator Ruben Diaz promised to bring 100 buses of 55 people each, but the Washington Blade estimates that about 2,000 people showed up. That makes sense—only an idiot would board a sinking ship, right? The people who did show up were hard to rouse, as the video above shows repeatedly. Even when implored to participate, these people who presumably took off work to prove how invested they are in maintaining gays' second-class citizenship, were quiet and otherwise unenthusiastic.

Other highlights in the video above include Huckabee pronouncing the "t" in "coup d'état," Diaz's words being translated as, "The Bible says that the kingdom of heaven makes violence but the violent take it by force—you are the violent ones, you are!," Reverend Bill Owens saying that marriage equality is not a civil rights movement but "a bully movement" (you're telling me) and encouraging people to break the law via discrimination, and the sentence, "Hi, I'm Doug Mainwaring, I'm gay, and I support marriage between a man and a woman, period!"

Just to give you a sense of the turnout, the following are from NOM's Facebook:

Twitter gives a more complete picture with some perspective, though:

I'd say there are maybe 2,000 people at the #March4Marriage. pic.twitter.com/G96wRwskct — Zack Ford (@ZackFord) June 19, 2014

What the crowd actually looks like at today's #March4Marriage: pic.twitter.com/dNpbkfyPXR — HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) June 19, 2014

Geez..👀 @ the SEA of #March4Marriage supporters, While Gay Pride only had 250±Thousand. 👫👭👬=💚 #marriagequality pic.twitter.com/k4xA4kg46f — Capital T Capital J (@Goatyeah) June 19, 2014

NOM's #March4Marriage may need some seat fillers pic.twitter.com/9c81em3s62 — Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) June 19, 2014

This joke circulated widely:

#Bravery:

Defending God's model for marriage right from Capitol Hill! #March4Marriage pic.twitter.com/z1WY7P3TRp — CWA LAC (@CWforA) June 19, 2014

And just to give you some visual perspective on turnout compared to other marches, here's one:

@HRC #March4Marriage That's not a "march." THIS was a MARCH. (1993 Gay Rights March on Washington) pic.twitter.com/Z87InV2UQW — Dan Nash (@danielpnash) June 19, 2014

After the speeches came the march:

Gathering behind the banner for the march to the Supreme Court #March4Marriage pic.twitter.com/JhvTfhpCXb — Sarah Smith (@sarahesmith23) June 19, 2014

#March4Marriage supporters kneel in prayer in front of the US Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/yxfZNDTEIg — CWA of Texas (@CWAofTexas) June 19, 2014

And if the whole thing weren't laughable enough, here are some of the more extreme characters spotted:

The signs at #March4Marriage are far more interesting than the speakers... pic.twitter.com/nf5smBTikk — The Bilerico Project (@bilericoproject) June 19, 2014