Word Out to the Volunteers

November 2, 2008

Several of you in post comments over the past few days have thanked me for standing up and being involved in the No on Prop 8 campaign, but I’ve only been actively engaged in all this for the past couple weeks. There have been volunteers that have been working on behalf of marriage equality and specifically the defeat of Prop 8 for months and months. They are tireless, dedicated, and somehow despite the emotional and physical toil this must be taking on them, they remain positive and good-spirited. I’m in awe of each and every one of them. The volunteers number in the thousands in California alone. The same thing is happening right now in Arizona and Florida, and every single day of every year all around the country volunteers are engaged in grassroots activism; advocating for and defending the basic rights of GLBTQ people, working against hate crimes and homophobia, confronting lies with truth, breaking down stereotypes, bringing education and training to faith-based justice groups,  and organizing political action to change discriminatory laws and practices. We owe so much to so many for the world we live in today as queer folks and I encourage you, in whatever ways you can, and however often you can, to do something to carry on the work that others have begun so that the GLBTQ people who follow us with have an even better world than we.

I’ve been so moved and humbled by the volunteers I’ve met over the past days I just had to give a rah-rah shout out for volunteerism. It’s a good thing.

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One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about participating in the visibility actions is getting to meet the person waving a sign next to you. This afternoon on a wonderfully dry and sunny day after yesterday’s visibility action in the unrelenting downpour, I had the good fortune to meet an older woman who was there with her husband. The woman is standing in the far right of the third image. I never got her name which is strange considering we chatted nonstop for more than an hour, but I learned that she and her husband are PFLAG parents. They have several adult children, one of them being a gay daughter in her early thirties. That’s why they were there. They want their daughter and other parent’s gay children to enjoy the same fundamental rights as do they and their straight children. One of the little bits she shared was that recently her husband had introduced her as his partner to another couple, and while she went on to explain to them that she was indeed his wife, they had decided to avoid using that terminology until the time came when her daughter would be provided the same opportunity under the law to use it to describe her own relationship. It was definitely one of those oh my gosh, do PFLAG parents rock or what?! moments.

Let me leave you with a final piece that appeared in today’s LA Times that shines a light on the lies being used by the Yes on 8 campaign in their attempt to write discrimination into the California constitution. They’ve really been telling so whoppers it’s hard to keep track anymore, though I’m pretty sure at this point they’re claiming that same sex marriage is directly responsible for global warming and those little fuzzy balls that start showing up on old sweaters.

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Posted in Marriage, News and Events