I've spent the past two days in a near robotic state preparing for finals here at American University. During a brief reprieve from the avalanche of work I took some time out of my life to browse through DailyKos, and that's when it hit me. Daily Kos needs to be Queered out! and I know JUST how to do it!
First, Check out this poll and WOW, there are so many more males on Dkos (why is that?). Now according to an unscientific poll,In terms of sexual orientation...
QUEERS MAKE UP ALMOST 20% of DKOS READERS
Of course, only an estimated +7,000 people took the poll, and over 400,000 people visit this site every day.
I do not know of any other political community as open and thought-provoking as DailyKos. It is the perfect arena for discussion of any progressive cause. Most of us don't need to be preached to about believing in progressive issues, but we all indeed come from very different backgrounds and raised to expect and see very different things from society.
We may all support one another, but not understand one another as much as we should. This is no one's fault, we all come from different backgrounds. It is everyone's duty however to share our personal stories so that we can as a community protect and fight for each other more effectively. As Straights, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered individuals, we may have assumptions of one another that are false. We can only confront our own biases by becoming better acquainted with one another.
Now the juicy part. I am proposing a Queer Out the Kos Day. What does this mean? Simple. This site gets hundreds of thousands of visitors every day, a large percentage of which are regular readers of the diaries. What if every queer diarist posted at exactly 9:28 pm (in honor of the date of the beginning of the Stonewall Riots) on Queer Out the Kos Day? We'd get the word out to queer diarists to theme their diaries on any topic pertaining to queer issues, as long as it is from a personal perspective. Depending on how many people sound interested, we'd make sure to edit each other's posts days before the day.
Why do this? It would open up a whole new avenue of conversation surrounding queer people and their allies. It will celebrate victories, memorialize losses, create dialogue and answer unanswered questions about queer people that some readers may have.
Most importantly however is that it would begin to foster a community of Queer and Queer Friendly Kos Readers and Diarists. the Kos could use more interaction between queer diarists and queer readers. I mean I know a few people whom I know comment regularly on some of my posts (unfortunately I never find the time to answer or acknowledge those comments). Anyway, sleep on this, tell me what ya'll think!
Author's Note: My name is Kevin Ballie, a student at American University (AU). I happen to work at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (GLBTA) Resource Center at AU. My area of activism centers particularly around GLBT activism. My goal is to write diaries on DailyKos as a regular update concerning issues facing the GLBT community. I sincerely hope to gain a readership base of committed GLBT activists and our supporters. Such a base will only enhance DailyKos and provoke greater thought. Just as a note, I may use terms like gay, lesbian, bisexual transgender (GLBT) or queer (a substitute for GLBT).