I'll shut up about 8 soon. Maybe.
General bitterness:
Andrew Sullivan has some good posts about the failures of the No on 8 campaign. My friend I. and I spent a quarter-hour the other day frothing at the mouth at one another on this very issue. I think the backlash - not neccessarily the court cases, but the grieving communities gathering in the streets and on corners and at churches and city halls - is going to do more for this cause than the No on 8 campaign itself did. I know that when I was recruiting for the No campaign (ahahaha WE RECRUIT) I spoke to two young women who were undecided as to how they would vote and unimpressed with my scripted lines. So I told them why it was important to me. I may even have choked up a bit (I'm an easy crier). They thanked me and went away, and I got a lecture from my official keeper about staying on message. But they came back, ten minutes later, and donated money to the campaign. From undecided voter to campaign donor. That's the power of a personalized message.
Apropos of those protests:
Queers United has the most comprehensive list of protest rallies. But if you live on the Bay Area peninsula, here are some more that aren't listed there.
And statewide:
Saturday. Nov. 15th
Join The Impact!
On the steps of your City Hall on November 15th at 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST, our community WILL take to the streets and speak out against Proposition 8. Organize in your own town!
Tips for rallies: Foamcore board won't sag in the rain the way cardboard and paper do; glue your sign to a piece of foamcore (available at Office Depot). Or make it on the foamcore with Sharpie (regular markers will run!) Leave enough space around the margin on top, bottom, and sides so that you can hold it without obscuring your message.
Tips for candlelight vigils: Most supermarkets, particularly those in Hispanic areas, sell those tall glass devotional candles. There are usually several that are plain, without religious imagery on them; they withstand wind well, cast a nice light, and are easier to hold than tapers, which drip wax. They're fairly inexpensive, last a long time, and make good backups for power outages later on, too. Don't say the Catholics never did nothing for you (see below).
Tips for both: DRESS WARMLY! With rain gear! I say this as someone who is still sick after spending a lot of pre-election time standing in the wind and rain with "No on 8" signs. And bring an extra sign or candle for someone else, if you can; not everyone will be as well-prepared as you are.
Divided We Fall:
And I hate to even have to address this, but there's a lot of finger-pointing going on in the queer community. The black vote passed it! The Hispanic vote passed it! The religious vote passed it! < subtext subtlety=0>Oh, those awful black, Hispanic, and religious people!< /subtext> To which I say, STOP THAT. Stop that NOW. At least thirty percent, and in most cases more, of each of those populations voted NO on Prop 8. Each of those populations contains queer people; they're not mutually exclusive categories. Blame, rather than outreach, will only hurt us all. What is this prisoner psychology that pits us against one another to the benefit of no-one but The Man? Seriously, I tried to find studies on it and only came up with Zimbardo, but there have to be books on this. It's pathological and self-destructive and stupid, and I see it everywhere.
Andrew Sullivan has some good posts about the failures of the No on 8 campaign. My friend I. and I spent a quarter-hour the other day frothing at the mouth at one another on this very issue. I think the backlash - not neccessarily the court cases, but the grieving communities gathering in the streets and on corners and at churches and city halls - is going to do more for this cause than the No on 8 campaign itself did. I know that when I was recruiting for the No campaign (ahahaha WE RECRUIT) I spoke to two young women who were undecided as to how they would vote and unimpressed with my scripted lines. So I told them why it was important to me. I may even have choked up a bit (I'm an easy crier). They thanked me and went away, and I got a lecture from my official keeper about staying on message. But they came back, ten minutes later, and donated money to the campaign. From undecided voter to campaign donor. That's the power of a personalized message.
Apropos of those protests:
Queers United has the most comprehensive list of protest rallies. But if you live on the Bay Area peninsula, here are some more that aren't listed there.
And statewide:
Saturday. Nov. 15th
Join The Impact!
On the steps of your City Hall on November 15th at 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST, our community WILL take to the streets and speak out against Proposition 8. Organize in your own town!
Tips for rallies: Foamcore board won't sag in the rain the way cardboard and paper do; glue your sign to a piece of foamcore (available at Office Depot). Or make it on the foamcore with Sharpie (regular markers will run!) Leave enough space around the margin on top, bottom, and sides so that you can hold it without obscuring your message.
Tips for candlelight vigils: Most supermarkets, particularly those in Hispanic areas, sell those tall glass devotional candles. There are usually several that are plain, without religious imagery on them; they withstand wind well, cast a nice light, and are easier to hold than tapers, which drip wax. They're fairly inexpensive, last a long time, and make good backups for power outages later on, too. Don't say the Catholics never did nothing for you (see below).
Tips for both: DRESS WARMLY! With rain gear! I say this as someone who is still sick after spending a lot of pre-election time standing in the wind and rain with "No on 8" signs. And bring an extra sign or candle for someone else, if you can; not everyone will be as well-prepared as you are.
Divided We Fall:
And I hate to even have to address this, but there's a lot of finger-pointing going on in the queer community. The black vote passed it! The Hispanic vote passed it! The religious vote passed it! < subtext subtlety=0>Oh, those awful black, Hispanic, and religious people!< /subtext> To which I say, STOP THAT. Stop that NOW. At least thirty percent, and in most cases more, of each of those populations voted NO on Prop 8. Each of those populations contains queer people; they're not mutually exclusive categories. Blame, rather than outreach, will only hurt us all. What is this prisoner psychology that pits us against one another to the benefit of no-one but The Man? Seriously, I tried to find studies on it and only came up with Zimbardo, but there have to be books on this. It's pathological and self-destructive and stupid, and I see it everywhere.
posted by The Stute Fish at 13:47
1 Comments:
Guys there is a great LGBT civil rights organization called the Empowering Spirits Foundation. They are very creative in how they approach this hot topic issue of gay marriage, in that they engage in service oriented activities in communities typically opposed to equal rights to foster thought and change for LGBT equality.
A friend of mine told me about it and I thought it was a great, positive approach to the issue. We had so much fun at the last event and it was great to give back to the community. Plus it was great to converse with others on the other side of the table in a way that wasn't confrontational.
Anyway, this can be such a heated issue and I thought this was a unique approach.
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