Make Dec. 10 A Day WITH A Gay

A Day Without A Gay is a movement being put together to essentially show the world that us gays are a) relevant, b) a financial force to be reckoned with, and c) that we are everywhere. What is suppose to happen is on December 10, the LGBT community is suppose to call in to work "gay." Not sick day, not a vacation day, simple a day that we refuse to come to work because we are gay.

I'll let that sink in for a moment, then we'll continue.

Ok. This is such an interesting idea and one that has the potential to make a HUGE impact on people! … of course, that's assuming we live and work in areas and in jobs that won't fire us for being gay or for abusing leave policies. And this would also have a HUGE impact on service industries, that tend to be dominated by our people… assuming that if you work in one of these typically hourly environments you can afford to take the day off.

In turn, the organizers have asked people to then spend the day working for a charity or philanthropic organization, or even attend a rally like the one being hosted here in Chicago. The idea is that if we don't go to work and don't spend any money but instead volunteer our time for the needy, then we'll show those straights what they are missing!

I hate to be a contrarian, but this actually won't show a single hetero person anything. They won't see us. We won't be at work. We won't be talking to them about our gay lives and our gay boyfriends. We will, in essence, be just as invisible, actually more so, than we've been for quite some time now. In fact, many of the haters will take it as a victory for them because we won't be around them, which is exactly what the haters want.

Invisibility will never accomplish acceptance! Let me put it another way: If we hide from the people that hate us, about 70% of the Florida population and at least 52% of the California population, they will never change their minds because they will not be forced to re-examine their ignorant hatred.

I say instead of A Day Without A Gay we give the public A Day With A Gay. Instead of tucking our tail and hiding for a day and passively hoping that someone takes notice, we bring it to them. Wear a rainbow or white knot and explain to everyone why you are wearing it. Let everyone around you know why you are mad about your rights being stripped from you and why they should be afraid the same thing could happen to them. Tell them exactly what can be done to stop it from happening in the future. If they know who we are, if they know how much it hurts and why it hurts, they can't hate us.

Activism is key in this movement and we must act swiftly to make a change, but hiding who we are will never help us achieve our goals of equality. If we aren't there to tell them why these anti-gay initiatives are evil, then our enemy will be. Don't let your friends and co-workers be swayed by the Scare Bears. Take a stand and let them know!