I congratulate you on all your efforts to make a difference in your part of the world. Hmm didn’t I include that in my previous statement…yes I did.

I believe that holding people accountable for their actions and inactions is important. It’s not like I can send someone who is complacent to their room without dinner. The only tool I have to communicate my frustration is my disappointment in their inaction. So yes I use the words, “Shame on you”. All caps too… ouch.

I used shame because there is an issue of morality here. I think you construe it with being gay. I do not. I am using it from the perspective of condemnation of inaction. I believe there is true dishonor and disgrace in character when people stay silent and do nothing.

We had a golden opportunity to join together as a community and make an impact. But as I stated before it’s our values that determine our choices.

I stand by my words of “SHAME ON YOU” to only those who stay silent and continue to be inactive on this issue. If you believe in equality and justice you will be morally compelled to DO SOMETHING. I want the hatred to end. I want the killing and the abuse to end. I want gay kids to stop choosing suicide. I don’t see a way out of all this negativity without LGBT people becoming fully equitable citizens of this country.

Thank you for proving my point by responding with negativity and bitterness. I wish you could take this energy and put it towards more positive activity.

That’s what I plan to do.

Inconveniently yours,
James

Look back to the summer and you will see that NO on Prop 8 only positioned itself as a California issue. I wrote them then, but it wasn’t until the very last month that their wording became national.

Too little, too late, now “call in gay”…I think they should all be replaced.

Sorry.

Another problem is that with so much intra group conflict on tactics and core principles, it’s hard to get a consensus, and fracture is the typical result. That’s partly a byproduct of education. Partly. Get a bunch of educated people together to discuss something they’ve got a common stake in, and aside from that commonality (and sometimes even that), there’s not much else that can be accomplished or agreed upon.

PUH-lease!

Is it possible in that closed little mind of yours that there are legitimate disagreements about tactics from good, hard-working people who are doing a lot of good for the movement? I have spent tremendous amounts of time and energy (and being “uncomfortable”) being an out gay man in my life, being more of a street activist in my 20s, and now trying to win over straight allies, build alliances, and work the mainstream political system. I don’t like anything that smacks of bullying or telling someone what to do, because I don’t like them doing that to me. (I didn’t try to “shame” people into not doing the “call in gay” protest…I simply decided that it wasn’t my way to contribute.)

And I find it interesting that a member of a movement that worked hard to mute the corrosive effects of shame being heaped on us for our sexualities is tossing out the same bullying shaming tactics toward his own people.

If the only way you can get people to “agree” with you and to sign on to your tactics is to shame them into doing it, there’s something wrong with this picture.

When I heard of this plan, it made me cringe, too. We’re in a bad economy, and businesses are looking for individuals to cut. Add in to the mix no legal protections for gays in the workforce in most states, and it equals a bad idea. I hate to sound even more negative, but really this smacked of a concept that would resonate with college students more then full-time working gays. Something needs to be said in response to the states that are fighting our equality, but unless the economy is booming and you know you can find a better job just around the corner, shelve this idea.

The best response we can make as a community is gather signatures and get initiatives to repeal these laws and amendments from each state. We need to get these conservative groups on the defensive, rather then having them pick and choose their next target. We could also score a meaningful victory if we can actually get a state to vote for our equality.

Start legal challenges in states with amendments to affect the benefits that unmarried straight couples receive. Recognition of common-law status paves the way for equality.