A New Way To Make An Impact

Awhile ago I was reading a study of Gen Y-ers, people of my generation. The study looked at what people of my generation want from the world and expect from the world, with a particular focus on the workplace. While the study was designed to shine some light on my confusing generation's work ethics, it actually turned up some rather more interesting information.

I'd link the article but I can't seem to find it anymore. However, the interesting tidbit had more to do with our expectations of the world rather than the work place. To summarize, we Gen Y-ers expect social change and justice, and we expect it to happen without arguments and fights, which we see as primitive and backwards. In other words, we want what we want not and we see no reason that we should have to actually fight for it.

This translates almost perfectly to the current gay movement. I've said it a million times: I just don't get why we have to fight. I honestly don't understand why anyone listens to these Christian Regressionists that have shown time and time again that they'd prefer us to be in another Dark Age. I simply can't comprehend any valid reason to be anti-gay. But I know we have to fight and we have to keep struggling, or we won't get anything.

Yesterday's Day Without A Gay seems to not have been that big of a success, as I was worried about. Not a single gay man I know stayed home in protest. Of course, that's anecdotal, but it is telling. From reports of the event, people that did stay home either called in "sick" or worked it out with their employer before hand. Weak.

Look, I thought we should have approached the whole thing differently, but if you wanted to participate, you should have gone full-force and done it. Don't putz around. Calling in generically "sick" didn't accomplish a damned thing because it did not force those you know and work with to consider their positions (i.e., the whole point of a protest/demonstration), and the same goes for pre-arranging. The point is to make a point, not to be casual observers of others making a point for you.

I don't believe that a statement like Day Without A Gay works for our movement. I think we need our own voice and have to stop copying those that came before us. Some things work, like marches and public protests. Deciding where to spend your hard-earned income based on knowledge about the companies you shop from also helps. But in this environment and with our generation's need for instant action/reaction, a work boycott simply doesn't work.

Instead, we need to band together and make actionable statements to those around us. People don't vote against that cute kid next door or the nice tech guy that always fixes my computer at work, they vote against the mythical militant gay guy. They vote against the things they perceive or flat-out don't know, which is why the Christian Conservatives are trying so damned hard to paint us as ugly, angry, mob-like, militant Queers. But if we make concerted efforts to let people know who we are, by coming out to people and letting them know why those kinds of anti-gay initiatives really hurt us, then we'll make a difference. People can't vote against the sweet gay boy that is hurt and broken.

That's why I strongly support the White Knot campaign and why I think our focus should be on one-to-one activism when we aren't in the streets. Our fight's don't have to take place on weekend only. We can fight this battle everyday in the office. At church. On the bus. On Facebook. But we have to fight it, we can't run from it, which is sadly what I felt like Day Without A Gay ultimately was: escapism. The world exists as it is now, full of hate toward us. It's up to us to change it, one heart and mind at a time.