National Lawn-Mowing Campaign
One of the things that's frustrating about the whole issue of gay rights is that it often seems resistant to rational argument. What changes minds, all too often, is personal experience. This article in the Boston Globe includes the following story:
Candaras had voted for the amendment when she was a House member representing a relatively conservative district with a large number of elderly people in Hampden County; now that she is a senator, she said, her new, much larger constituency made its sentiment clear to her.
Some constituents wrote saying that they had changed their minds, like the elderly woman who said she previously asked Candaras to support the ban.
"But since then, Gale," the woman wrote, as Candaras told it, "this lovely couple, these two men, moved in next door to me, and they have a couple of children and they're married, and they help me with my lawn. And if they can't be married in Massachusetts, they're going to leave -- and then who would help me with my lawn?"
Candaras said that after living with gay marriage for three years, many Massachusetts residents have grown accustomed to it, even those who once had reservations.
"It's a cultural change, and for older people, it is a difficult cultural change," she said. "But I think people are coming to understand the issue and coming to appreciate the fact that the world is changing -- and that these people deserve to enjoy . . . the same rights of marriage."
So, maybe MassEquality.org or the Freedom to Marry Coalition should organize lawn-mowing teams and call up the local Councils on the Aging and say "We've got ten people in your community who would be happy to mow an elder's lawn on a regular basis. Just sign your people up and we'll show up to mow!"
I realize that the issue seems to be settled here in Massachusetts for the moment, but if it's going to take individual, positive experiences of gay people to change minds, then maybe that's where we should be focusing our attention.
Candaras had voted for the amendment when she was a House member representing a relatively conservative district with a large number of elderly people in Hampden County; now that she is a senator, she said, her new, much larger constituency made its sentiment clear to her.
Some constituents wrote saying that they had changed their minds, like the elderly woman who said she previously asked Candaras to support the ban.
"But since then, Gale," the woman wrote, as Candaras told it, "this lovely couple, these two men, moved in next door to me, and they have a couple of children and they're married, and they help me with my lawn. And if they can't be married in Massachusetts, they're going to leave -- and then who would help me with my lawn?"
Candaras said that after living with gay marriage for three years, many Massachusetts residents have grown accustomed to it, even those who once had reservations.
"It's a cultural change, and for older people, it is a difficult cultural change," she said. "But I think people are coming to understand the issue and coming to appreciate the fact that the world is changing -- and that these people deserve to enjoy . . . the same rights of marriage."
So, maybe MassEquality.org or the Freedom to Marry Coalition should organize lawn-mowing teams and call up the local Councils on the Aging and say "We've got ten people in your community who would be happy to mow an elder's lawn on a regular basis. Just sign your people up and we'll show up to mow!"
I realize that the issue seems to be settled here in Massachusetts for the moment, but if it's going to take individual, positive experiences of gay people to change minds, then maybe that's where we should be focusing our attention.