My Take on Prop 8
For those who don’t know what Prop 8 refers to, I’ll direct you to the Wikipedia article. Basically, it was a proposition in California to explicitly eliminate gay marriages in that state, and annul marriages that had already been processed. The proposition passed by a margin of 52% to 48%. In particular, the Mormon church funded much of the ‘Yes on Prop 8’ campaign, and as a result of this proposition passing, many gay people have been demonstrating and protesting against the Mormon church. I’ve been invited to quite a few of these protests. However, I don’t think any of that is really going to be that effective. Over 6 million people voted for the proposition, and that is who we should be targeting.
What we really need to do is grab the hearts and minds of straight people, and the only way to do that is by becoming a visible minority, instead of being the invisible minority we have been for far too long. On the Wikipedia article, there’s a nice map of which way each county voted on the proposition: as is typical for liberal movements, the urban centres were for gay rights, and the rural areas were against them. The urban centres are converted already, so all those protests, etc. are preaching to the choir. It’s easy to be gay on Broadway. It’s up to those, like me, who grew up in small towns to be openly gay, by wearing something obvious, a rainbow coloured bracelet, for example, year round. By being openly gay when you go back home for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or whenever, you then become an ambassador for the gay community, and not just during Pride.
It’s not going to be easy, but I personally am going to be wearing a rainbow coloured necklace made by my friend Marcus. I’ll be wearing it when I go to my church in my home town, wearing it around my family at Christmas. If enough people did that, I’m pretty sure it would tip the scales.
What we really need to do is grab the hearts and minds of straight people, and the only way to do that is by becoming a visible minority, instead of being the invisible minority we have been for far too long. On the Wikipedia article, there’s a nice map of which way each county voted on the proposition: as is typical for liberal movements, the urban centres were for gay rights, and the rural areas were against them. The urban centres are converted already, so all those protests, etc. are preaching to the choir. It’s easy to be gay on Broadway. It’s up to those, like me, who grew up in small towns to be openly gay, by wearing something obvious, a rainbow coloured bracelet, for example, year round. By being openly gay when you go back home for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or whenever, you then become an ambassador for the gay community, and not just during Pride.
It’s not going to be easy, but I personally am going to be wearing a rainbow coloured necklace made by my friend Marcus. I’ll be wearing it when I go to my church in my home town, wearing it around my family at Christmas. If enough people did that, I’m pretty sure it would tip the scales.