SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9, 2008
"Call In Gay" Same-Sex Marriage Allies Say
Planned Work Stoppages Part Of Protest Against Recent Rulings Against Gays And Lesbians
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Organizers of "Day Without a Gay" - scheduled to coincide with International Human Rights Day and modeled after similar work stoppages by Latino immigrants - also are encouraging people to perform volunteer work and refrain from spending money. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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Interactive Gay In The U.S.A. State-by-state laws on gay issues, the marriage debate and photo essays.
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Interactive Civil Rights In America A look back at the key people and events of the civil rights movement.
Organizers of "Day Without a Gay" - scheduled to coincide with International Human Rights Day and modeled after similar work stoppages by Latino immigrants - also are encouraging people to perform volunteer work and refrain from spending money.
Sean Hetherington, a West Hollywood comedian and personal trainer, dreamed up the idea with his boyfriend, Aaron Hartzler, after reading online that a few angry gay-rights activists were calling for a daylong strike to protest California voters' passage last month of Proposition 8, which reversed this year's state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage.
The couple thought it would be more effective and less divisive if people were asked to perform community service instead of staying home with their wallets shut. Dozens of nonprofit agencies, from the National Women's Law Center in Washington to a Methodist church in Fresno collecting food for the homeless, have posted opportunities for volunteers on the couple's Web site.
"We are all for a boycott if that is what brings about a sense of community for people," said Hetherington, 30, who plans to spend Wednesday volunteering at an inner-city school. "You can take away from the economy and give back in other ways."
Hetherington said he's been getting 100 e-mails an hour from people looking for volunteer opportunities, and that his "Day Without a Gay" Web site has gotten 100,000 hits since mid-November.
Despite Hartzler and Hetherington's attempt to fashion a positive approach, some organizers of the street demonstrations that drew massive crowds in many cities last month have been reluctant to embrace the concept, saying that it could be at best impractical and at worst counterproductive to "call in gay."
"It's extra-challenging for people to think about taking off work as a form of protest, given that we are talking about people who may not be out (as gay) at work, and given the current economic situation and job market," said Jules Graves, 38, coordinator of the Colorado Queer Straight Alliance. "There is really not any assurance employers would appreciate it for what it is."
Graves' group nonetheless is arranging for interested participants to volunteer at the local African Community Center in Denver. The agency said it could find projects to keep 20 people busy, but so far only 10 have pledged to show up, said Graves.
Join The Impact, the online community that launched protests last month over the passage of gay marriage bans in California, Florida and Arizona, has urged people to withdraw $80 from their bank accounts Wednesday to demonstrate gays' spending power, and to devote the time they might otherwise spend watching TV or surfing the Internet to volunteer work.
Witeck-Combs Communications, a public relations firm in Washington that specializes in the gay and lesbian market, published a study this year that estimated that gay and lesbian consumers spend $700 billion annually.
Bob Witeck, the firm's chief executive officer, said it would be difficult to measure the success of Wednesday's strike since gay employees occupy so many fields. And rather than suspending all consumer spending for the day, gay rights supporters would have a bigger impact if they devoted their dollars to gay-friendly businesses year-round, Witeck said.
"Our community leaders who are running book stores, newspapers, flower shops, coffee houses, bars and many, many other things are hurting right now, so paying attention to their needs during this hard time is an effective form of activism," he said.
Hetherington said he has been careful to design Day Without a Gay - he came up with the name after the film "A Day Without a Mexican" and liked it because it rhymed - so no one feels excluded or threatened.
He has specifically urged high school students not to walk out of their classes and assured college students they won't be disloyal to the cause if they go ahead and take their final exams. He also has listed opportunities - ranging from writing letters to members of Congress about federal gay rights legislation to spreading the word about Wednesday on social networking sites - for gay marriage backers who cannot miss work.
Scott Craig, a 5th-grade teacher at Independence Charter School in Philadelphia, had no problem requesting and being granted the day off. So many of the school's 60 teachers were eager to show support for gay rights they had to make sure enough stayed behind to staff classrooms.
About 25 teachers plan to take Wednesday off and to have their work covered by substitutes while they discuss ways to introduce gay issues to their students and volunteer at the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, Craig said. A letter telling parents why so many teachers would be out went home Monday.
"We want to get the conversation going in the community that gay is not bad," Craig said. "For kids to hear that in a positive light can be life-changing."
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Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 269 CommentsThat is just not the case. Lots of people get married intending not to have children. Lots of postmenopausal women or otherwise infertile people get married.
I got married without a decision to have children. Years later we decided, and had a child. Now we are empty nesters. Our marriage is not useless because we have no children in the house.
Posted by BlackYowe
Well said.
Posted by HonestAbe8
Well done. You did not use some obscure reasoning or spin, you just stated your arguement straight away.
Now do you feel better for telling us all that? It means nothing, but I am sure you are used to your comments getting that reaction.
a total waste of time..JUST LIKE EVERYTHING THESE F@GGOTS EVER COME UP WITH...
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Posted by HonestAbe8 at 02:50 PM : Dec 11, 2008
+ report abuse
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when you attack ..you fear and when you fear it means you believe..
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Posted by pepperwood2 at 10:51 PM : Dec 10, 2008
+ report abuse
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if you are 10 years old..then YES THAT WOULD BE A FUNNY IDEA but at your age...its pretty idotic..
so because religious people does not surrender themselves to you 100% means you are up to pranks and childish stunts???
what a bunch of insecure sissies
Posted by HonestAbe8
Typical person that cannot come to the table with a legit arguement, find some obtuse issue and bend it to make yourself feel like you are OK for what you are doing.
Stick to the relevant facts. Don''t point blame unless you, and your side, are guiltless. Stop the spin, be honest in your arguement. Or just be quiet. Oh, and calling names is not helping your cause.
The Holy Bible records that Homosexuals are highly intolerant of those who object to their choice to yield to their ungodly desires (Genesis 19:9; Judges 19:22-28). Their vicious campaign is therefore not a surprise.
The wrath of God will someday fall on this world that is being hijacked by homosexuals and those with a mindset to do the things that are abominable to the one and only true God of the Holy Bible.
lets do it for a whole month..
I wonder what this idiotic stunt accomplished
Posted by Flight-321
I am sad to say you are right. One day the Prop 8s of the world will be done and ggays will take from others what is precious to them.
If you shove it down the throats of others long enough eventually some will swallow and you only need 50% plus one vote.
But that does not make it right. Partial birth abortion is legal, not right though. The mother is giving birth, the head emerges but the body is still inside the mother''s body, the doctor inserts a needle in the baby''s head and scrambles the brain, killing the child, painfully. Legal, yes. Wrong, yes, in the very deepest terms it is wrong.
This will happen with ggay marriage too, evil and wrong to take something from others, but will one day likely become legal. Legal but wrong.
Posted by Flight-321
YOu do not have the right to take something from me, you think you are more important than I am? How can you decide to take something from me and think that is OK, all the while telling me to stay out of your business.
Hypocrite!!!
Why can''t the ggay community get the privledges marriage allows, but not change marriage to suit their own needs? Why not come up with a ggay union that will carry all the same privledges as marriage.
Why take something from someone else just to get what you want, that is kind of like robbery isn''t it?
Posted by Flight-321
Or can that be said
"stop trying to pervert the meaning of the word marriage to suit your own desires and then you can come down off your soapbox and be a normal person."
Posted by Flight-321
You can lie to yourself all you want, it does not make it true. How is it a right for you to change the defenition of a word to suit your desires? What if I decided to change the definition of ggay to mean a child molester? Can I just do that and it would be OK with you? No.(and no I do not think ggays all molest children any more than all straight people do.)
So tell me the downside to coming up with your own ggay union and getting all privledges that come with it? Or is it just easier for you to take the meaning of marriage and mold it to your own needs, regardless of others?
I HAVE NOT ATTEMPTED TO TAKE AWAY ANY OF YOUR RIGHTS SO STAY OUT OF MINE!
Posted by Flight-321
I did not tell you to marry anyone. You can stay single all you want.
And Yes, you did try and take my rights. You tried to change the defenition of marriage to suit your selfish desires.
Marriage is one man and one woman, if you dont like it... I am sorry.
Posted by ccdsswrkr08
No, stop the pitty spin. It is more like you would like the add a public restroom. There is one now for men, and another for women, you want there to be one for men and women who do not want to go into their own restrooms. Or are you saying you want the men to be able to go into the women''s, at will, and vice-versa? It is about gender, not color.
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