History is often written by whoever gets their story out the earliest, repeats it most often, and says it the loudest. Republicans will try to make the night of June 25, 2013 a story of an “unruly mob” who disrupted the democratic process. Anyone watching Tuesday night knows that this is a lie, but Republicans know that repeating a lie enough times makes it the truth (cf. Swift Boat, Benghazi, IRS, etc.)

We have to be the authors of history on this one, and truth is on our side. They’re going to try to pass this bill again. They have the numbers to do it. We have the power to make it clear that they had to break the rules—and the law—to get SB5 passed.

Texas Rep. Donna Howard posted this on her Facebook page with the following note (h/t Jennifer): “I want to emphasize the comments from someone who posted on my page because it gives you a perspective that is not necessarily being conveyed by the media and certainly not by the Republicans.” The comment is from Kathy Kennemer Genet (paragraph breaks added for ease of reading):

For the last day, I have glad to have been known as a member of the Unruly Mob at the capitol. But I want to straighten out a misconception about what happened in the Senate Chamber on Tuesday, and on Monday, and in the House Chamber on Sunday.

I was fortunate to be a witness in the galleries those days. Each day I was there, the leaders in those rooms, and the leaders of the groups organizing us made it crystal clear that we had to respect the rules of decorum there. We were shushed if we clapped, or spoke out in any way. We were prohibited from any expressions, including silent “jazz hands” during the proceedings.

The threat was that after being warned from the floor, if even one of us spoke out, the whole gallery would be cleared. Our job each time was to be a silent witness and a silent support for our legislators doing their work. Occasionally, a new spectator was allowed into the gallery, and if they yelled out, dozens of us quickly got them quiet and told them not to do it again.

I saw many of the same faces day after day in the chambers. We listened to things that made us sad, and happy, and angry and proud. We watched our legislators doing their work and hoped they got some support from our witness and our presence. We silently watched Sen. Davis’s tireless filibuster and the good work of the Senators supporting her for over 12 hours.

In the last half hour, as procedural rules were ignored and broken so that the vote could happen against the law, Senator Letcia Van de Putte, said these words: “At what point does a female Senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?” At that moment hours and days of decorum did break, but they broke as a civic duty to halt what should have been halted legally, through the rules of the Texas State Senate. We were the last wall, and all the anger, and frustration and emotion poured out.

We responded to the rule of law being broken right in front of us. And this time our legislators from the Senate, and from the Texas House of Representatives who had come into the Senate chambers, looked up at us and smiled and held up two fingers which meant a NO vote. And we held up two fingers and yelled until our ears rang. The troopers were leading people out, and as the gallery emptied to 2/3, the sound got louder.

I have never been more proud to raise my voice and I would have happily been arrested for that right. We were not an unruly mob in the gallery despite what Lt. Gov. Dewhurst says. In this way, as in countless others that night, he is wrong.