ACTION DIARY -- If you are so inclined, please REC this up.
As many people might know, the nationwide protests against Proposition 8 were only supposed to be the first step.
The purpose of this diary is threefold:
- To explain what is happening on December 10th -- or is supposed to happen and to correct some common misconceptions about the event.
- To address from my own point of view some complaints and disagreements that have circulated about this event.
- To discuss, in a more general sense, the talk on the blogosphere in general and Daily Kos in particular regarding the feeling that our acting out is somehow "unfair" or hurting people who aren't involved in the GLBT civil rights struggle.
First of all I want to stress that I am not a part of Join The Impact and that this entire diary is my point of view linking with official sources. Nothing I say here should be taken to be the word of an organizer (except where blockquoted).
First of all I want to discuss my motivation in posting this diary. It seems just from personal experience and my observations that especially on the blogsophere there is no truth about the GLBT community or its actions so transparent that it cannot be twisted out of all recognition.
The simplest and most straightforward or even mild action by GLBT people in defense of their own rights will be argued with, sometimes by gay and lesbian people themselves, or by their sincere allies, and even more often by "concerned outsiders" for whom no act, no matter how well-considered, practical or careful, is not practical or careful enough not to be branded as "childish" or "unfair".
We, the GLBT people of this country, are being treated as if we are children. We, the GLBT people even on Daily Kos, are being patted on the head by concern trolls who pose as well meaning and told to go away. THIS MUST STOP. And it will stop. One way or another.
As a part of my mini-rant, it does not appear to matter that these very same actions would be actions that are time-honored acts of protest oft exercised by any other group of people whose civil liberties were in question. So the natural question would be "why should we be any different"?
Simply put, the "concern" over GLBT people lifting a single finger in mutual solidarity and non-violent self defense is getting a bit thick in here.
So, I'm going to do, on Wednesday December 10th, exactly what the concern trolls would have me do, and I hope each and every GLBT person on Daily Kos, to the extent possible, joins me. As one of my actions for Day without a Gay, I will not be here. "Here" being on the internet or on Daily Kos in general .. but I will get to the full explanation in a moment and I will also explain what else I am doing in support of this event.
Please note: This is not a strike or any kind of complaint about the management of Daily Kos, Markos Mouslitas, or the front pagers or administrators of this site. It is a simple demonstration, that I would hope the aforementioned people would support, for what the world might be like in which the homophobes won and gay people didn't exist in our society.
Now, with that being said what is Day without a Gay?
Simply put, (my interpretation) it is a way of showing our friends and allies and even the enemies of our civil liberties what it means in this country to be without gay people enhancing the economy and social life -- to the extent we can do this as non destructively (personally or to the people we love) as possible.
The idea is to "call in gay" to work, if you can without risking your job or the health and safety of other people, and otherwise to use the day of December 10th with as little economic activity as possible, along with perhaps using the time to participate in GLBT specific or even not GLBT-specific volunteer work.
Do you have to call in "gay" to work and not work to support Day without a Gay?
NO. And I don't plan on doing so. My clients for example, for whom 24/7/365 service is a point of why our company is used in the first place, would not understand, and I don't plan on being unavailable to them.
What about those people who think protesting in this manner is not the right thing to do?
Here is a quote from a diary written a couple of weeks ago by a person (presumably GLBT) who said "Day without a Gay is the wrong direction"
I do like the idea of keeping the movement alive, but I’m not sure a day without gay is the right event for it (and certainly I wouldn't cancel the Day w/o gay event, I think we just need a new direction for future events). The nature of the event seems to exclude allies in the lgbta spectrum, and taking off work during this economy will be hard for many people (I took unpaid time off work to come to the protests, it would be hard to keep doing that on a regular basis). With this much advanced notice, the portion of people who can take off will likely have their shifts covered, so I don’t see much subsequent media coverage. With groups like Equality NC working within the system as the face of the lgbt rights movement to government officials, groups like this should be working to be the face to the public at large.
I quote this because I want to say that, with all due respect, the diarist of the quoted diary is missing the point entirely. And I want to quash this misconception and many others about the GLBT protest movement in general.
The point isn't any one event. The hope is (and I only speak for myself here) it's a part of a long running, but non-violent and non-destructive, series of events to show the non-GLBT of this country that we matter.
In that way of looking at it, it is an important responsibility for every GLBT person in the country (even closeted LGBT people) to demonstrate, to resist, even if only slightly, but continuously and even annoyingly, for as long as it takes for the straight majority in the country to acknowledge us in a more constructive way than they have, to date.
Few except the most extreme would ask that anyone sacrifice their job and go homeless, stop feeding their partners or children, or destroy the life of any other person.
Repeat: You should not have to quit your job or sacrifice your livelihood on the alter of GLBT equality to participate in this movement. You do not even have to sacrifice one day's pay.
Beyond this, I have to ask, if GLBT people cannot agree on anything, however "small and insignificant" something is, do we really deserve to be heard at all? If we will second-guess every way of making ourselves heard is going to be the order of the day, for everything, then it's fair to ask, why should our allies bother to fight for us either?
But what about fairness to our oppressors?
Yes, yes, even this question is asked on Daily Kos, repeatedly.
This is not about fairness. It is not about saying we can or even should either punish every person or every group of people who ever wanted to deny us our civil liberties, or else hang it up and accept our second class status (as homophobes inexplicably and in complete denial of human nature want us to do, every day).
This is not about hate or punishing people IN THE FIRST PLACE.
No, this is about demonstrating something to the people who would oppress us, and their friends and family. Not about harming them, specifically, but about showing them.
All well and good, but what do YOU, AndyS In Colorado, plan to do for "Day without a Gay"?
As I said above, I plan to participate but I will still be working on Wednesday. Nor will I be "volunteering". To be honest I just can't spare the time. But I am not being a hypocrite here, nor would any other person. And, again, the point is about small but continuous resistance and pushing back against our oppression, even in apparently small and insignificant ways (to us, but with cumulative effect over time).
This is what I will be doing:
- I will not be on the blogosphere -- and I will be working, because the project I am working on is too important even to sacrifice one day.
- The TV, and radio, and all other forms of communication except my cell phone (which is only being kept on for the clients and my boss) will be OFF.
- I will spend no cash money on Wednesday. I will deliberately buy nothing with my credit card.
- I will write (and now, have written) this diary.
- I will not go out with friends.
Now, it's fair to ask, will this make any difference if only I do it, or even if every GLBT person in the country does this or more on December 10th?
Probably not, but that's not the point. The point is, the protests of November, this action of December, and future actions are laying the groundwork for continuous and long lasting resistance.
In that environment, it cannot be said (at least non ludicrously) that any one thing is "the wrong direction". Because, the direction is to apply pressure. Some large pressures, some small pressures. If one event, or a series of them, get no media attention, who cares? Protest can be huge and dramatic, or it can be an stinging rock between our oppressor's shoes and naked feet that never ever goes away. And our struggle can be both, or either, in different events and incidents.
One last word, about people who are continuously concerned about every last thing GLBT people might do (even other GLBT people, but, not, uh, YOU in your vast wisdom and unparalleled insight) to fight for their own equality:
PLEASE, UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING HIGHLY CONCRETE, AND A WELL-CONSIDERED DETAILED PLAN FOR WHAT TO DO INSTEAD TO FURTHER OUR FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AND EQUALITY, THAT YOU YOURSELF ARE WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN OR SUPPORT IN THE REAL WORLD, STOP QUESTIONING THE SMALLEST THINGS OTHER PEOPLE WILL DO! JUST STOP. My mother told me "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". To which I will add, if you don't have constructive suggestions for what gay people should do to win their equality, shut the hell up about what is being done, and just do it -- that is, whatever "it" is to the extent you can. Either that, or just, in the immortal words of Jeff Lieber, SYFP.