With that said, I have financial obligations to UMass Boston, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, I have to pay for my apartment in Montreal, feed myself, clothe myself, buy my mother’s expensive prescriptions and help her out financially(rent and food) while I am helping her(she’s disabled) and working in Nashville. I expend far more than I take in, even though I sublet my apartment for dirt cheap to college students in Montreal, I don’t make enough. I cannot just call in gay, when the state I am working in(Tennessee) has absolutely no legal protections.

My boss despite being a Republican from Texas, is actually quite supportive of gay rights on “pro-choice” grounds. He doesn’t like big government in his pockets or bedroom, so he believes gays should have “right of contract” to marry. But he doesn’t believe in anti-discrimination laws or affirmative action.

Per every person working in the hotel I work at, there are 3 applications on file and 10 calls per week about hiring. If I were to call in gay, my boss would be so pissed off, he would cut my hours or fire me. And to be honest, I wouldn’t blame him, especially given the line of applicants willing to work for less.

After Prop 8, when I found out the names and companies of those who supported it, I joined in boycotting certain companies. Dell Computers has been on my sh*t list lately, due to outsourcing, lack of service in French(I live in Quebec), and the latest one of the founders of the company giving money to pass prop 8. I put a brand new Dell Laptop on layaway at BestBuy, yet when I heard that Dell was implicated in Prop 8, I decided not to purchase the computer. While not buying a Dell computer might seem rather small, but this was a big purchase for me considering my income and expenses. Also, in Solidarity with our brethren and lesbotarian sisters in California, I looked up public documents in Nashville about LDS support for the Amendment to the Constitution here, and I submitted an amicus brief detailing LDS involvement, in contravention to federal tax law in Tennessee.

So, Mike Ai (Equal Roots) and I went to the Glendale Galleria yesterday and for the most part it was a very exciting and fun event. Most people were very supportive. The adrenaline was rushing and my heart was beating because we were trying to do it on a downlow. Our first stop was Americana where we ran into an unpleasant security guard who kicked us out so we head across the street to the Galleria. Once there we slipped in amongst the shoppers and did our thing.

I try not to assume anything and approached everyone to tell them we’re from the Courage Campaign and we’re trying to collect enough signatures to repeal Prop 8. Most passersbys would stop dead in their tracks once they hear “repeal Prop 8″ and would utter “Oh, to repeal it? Of course. It should never have been passed in the first place. Here I’ll sign it!” I have to say it was about 60/40 percentage wise. 60% we approached were friendly and signed the petition. One Hispanic lady was so supportive she asked me if she could sign on behalf of all her family. I said “Yes” (hey, I’m an any means necessary kinda guy) and she proceeded to sign four of her family members onto our petition.

I ran into several of our oppositions and engaged in a light discussion (if you can call it that). An older White man, who was with his wife, barked “Why don’t you get over it?” when he overhead my conversation with a supportive voter about two feet away. My heart just went thump and before I knew it “You get over it? We’ll never get over it. We’re gonna win this thing!” came out of my mouth. I shot him an evil eye. Well, to the best of my ability. Mike said, “Come on Nakhone. Don’t engage” and he pulled me away.

Then I ran into a lovely White lady (Something’s wrong with yall White people I think) who told me she doesn’t go to church. She proceeded to quote the Bible and told me that marriage is between a man and a woman. “It’s been like that for 5,000 years,” she said. “Actually, the Bible also says that Polygamy was an okay thing back then. And, FYI…marriage in the old days was a legal contract between the two families designating you, the wife, as a property.” She just blinked when I said that. “Well, the Polygamy thing was in the old testament but the new Testa…” and I cut her off. “Oh, so you’re saying that everything in the Bible is supposedly God inspired and then God changed his mind?” She stood there dumbfounded and I said “Thank you. Happy Holidays!” and walked away.

Soon after we got caught, after being there for about 2 hours, and had to leave. We rounded our day off with a candlelight vigil at the corner of San Vicente and Santa Monica Boulevard. We even made the news! We chanted, we lit candles and we went around the circle reading names of victims who’ve fallen due to hate crimes and the UN’s non-binding resolution in support of Gay Rights. We even marched down to the Coronet Theatre because we knew Margaret Cho was doing a fundraiser there. We all ended up being invited to go inside and see the Xmas show. All in all it was great day!

Gays United Network, along with Equality Network and Equal Roots are talking about organizing a Statewide day of canvassing to collect signatures for the Courage Campaign. It went so well that we want to do this again. Stay tuned for more details.