out in alexandria

"Are you married?"

It is a common enough question for a woman traveling alone in the Middle East. But here, sitting alone in a car with H, the boyfriend of an Egyptian friend I just met that day in Alexandria, I find myself unexpectedly nervous. Because the inevitable follow-up question, "Why not?" is coming, and I'm not sure what reaction I would get to the answer I want to give, "Because I'm gay and it's illegal."

So I dodge and mutter something about not having found the right person, but feel a bit cowardly for doing so.

But then, at dinner, I get another chance. "Do men have to be gay to join CODEPINK?" H asks. It's not a question I expected to encounter. No, I reply, they can be gay or straight, they just have to be cool with women being in charge.

Then I think, This is absurd. What the hell am I afraid of? So, before the conversation can move on, I interject: "You know, I'm gay. And the reason I hesitated earlier when you asked me if I was married is because, in my home state, California, it's illegal for gay people to get married."

The response was immediate and shared by everyone at the table--M and N, my friends from the Gaza delegation, but also H and two of his friends. "That's ridiculous! Who cares if you're gay? You should be able to do whatever you want."

Then the conversation moved on to some other topic and I felt a bit silly for having been nervous about anything at all...and, when I thought about it more, a bit ashamed. I had conceded to a tiny bit of Islamophobia, assuming that I might get a homophobic reaction from these people, who are cosmopolitan, well-educated and engaged in politics--the kind of people with whom, in the US, I would not give a second thought to being open about my sexual orientation.

The whole incident made me think a lot about solidarity, and what it means to really see someone as your equal. I would never accept anything less than full respect for my identity and my rights from any friend or comrade of mine in the US. So why then would I expect anything less from my new friends in Alexandria? Did I somehow think that the ability to understand an argument for equal rights--anyone's equal rights--stops at the borders of the Muslim world?

Too often, the image that reaches the US of the Arab world is limited to a one-word description. (Muslim = fundamentalist, women = oppressed, Palestinians = terrorists, etc.) But if more Americans actually traveled there, they would soon discover that the Middle East is a far more open, diverse, heterogeneous and cosmopolitan society than you would ever imagine given its portrayal in the US media (including Hollywood, but that is a rant for another blog post.)

I'm not trying to suggest, at all, that there is no homophobia (or sexism) in the Middle East, on both an institutional and an individual level. There are still plenty of people who live closeted lives--for the same reasons many people in the US do, because they are afraid their families won't accept them and they need their families for financial and/or social support. But the Middle East is not a reactionary monolith, either. Cities are more liberal than rural areas, and there are all kinds of regional differences based on everything from physical geography to the strength of different political traditions to variations in religion and ethnic makeup. Gee, sounds just like the US, doesn't it? Surprise! We're all not that different from one another!

P.S. Look at all the labels I get to use on this post!

prop 8 upheld; protests across the country

I was too busy packing on Tuesday to write about Prop 8, but you have probably heard that it was upheld by the CA State Supreme Court (although the existing marriages were not invalidated.)

The good news is that people across the country seemed to react combatively and confidently. Protest actions were held in over 100 cities across the US, with 15,000 marching in LA and around 5,000 in New York.

In an indication of people's mood, when EQCA, Courage Campaign and other gay establishment orgs circulated their "return to the ballot in 2010 or 2012" poll, over 80% voted for 2010.

I'll post more reports when I have time to look for them later, but a good summary can be found here.

30 years since the white night riots

Join the Impact recently reminded me that yesterday, May 21, marked the 30-year anniversary of the White Night Riots, when San Francisco gays took to the streets in outrage after Dan White received the lightest possible sentence for the 1978 murders of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor Dan Moscone. (Dianne Feinstein ended up a totally undeserving beneficiary of the surge in gay militancy that followed.)

Some rumors have circulated on the interwebs that Gavin Newsom specifically requested the CA Supreme Court not release its Prop 8 ruling yesterday--which, if the ruling is unfavorable, probably would have been most unwise indeed. The mayor's office quickly denied that it had made any such request...although that would certainly have explained Thursday's false alarm on the ruling.

You can watch a clip from The Times of Harvey Milk (a fantastic documentary if you haven't seen it) showing the White Night Riots here. I would say "don't get any ideas, folks"...but, well, you know me. :-)

THIS JUST IN! PROP 8 DECISION ON TUESDAY!!!

The CA Supreme Court will announce its ruling on Prop 8 on Tuesday, May 26. This decision will involve both the validity of Prop 8 and the fate of the 18,000 marriages that were conducted while gay marriage was legal in California.

The decision will be announced at 10am PDT/1pm EDT.

"Day of Decision" actions are being planned in dozens of cities across the country. If there is anything but a complete victory (ie. if the court protects the marriages but upholds Prop 8, or if the court upholds Prop 8 and invalidates the marriages) prepare for PROTEST. In the event that Prop 8 is invalidated, prepare for CELEBRATION.

For actions in your city, check the Day of Decision website.

gay marriage update: the force is with us

As a wise Jedi once said: "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Earning more brownie points for the Northeast, MAINE HAS LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE! YAY MAINE! The fight is not over--although the governor signed the bill on May 6, opponents are filing a challenge that could put equal rights up for a referendum in November, or possibly as late as June 2010. But this is still an incredibly important victory, since it marks the second state, after Vermont, to legalize gay marriage via the state legislature, not the courts, thereby making the whole "this isn't the will of the people" argument less and less relevant.

Just a day later, a similar bill narrowly passed the New Hampshire state legislature--but NH governor John Lynch has not yet announced whether he'll sign it.

And here in New York, it seems very likely that a gay marriage bill will pass as early as tomorrow in the traditionally liberal State Assembly--as it did in 2007, only to be killed in the more conservative State Senate. But unlike 2007, and for the first time in SEVENTY YEARS, Democrats have a majority in both houses of the New York state legislature. Will this, combined with the recent groundswell of support for gay rights, be enough to tip the balance? We'll see.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts has had gay marriage for five years now...and, surprise, the state hasn't exploded.

And, perhaps most important of all, the first nationwide polls are appearing that show more Americans support gay marriage than oppose it.

I don't want to jinx anything with terms like "sea change." But it is stunning, truly stunning, how much the balance of forces has shifted even since March, when I attended the Cali Supreme Court hearings on Prop 8. The mood was not optimistic at the time--and it's very possible we could still lose in California. But it's seeming increasingly likely that even if the court does not rule in our favor in California, it will be a case of losing the battle but winning the war.

It is also becoming increasingly likely, I am realizing, that when the CA State Supreme Court decision comes down, I will be overseas in Gaza, busy fighting for someone else's rights--which seems, somehow, entirely befitting this historical moment.

three cheers for equality!

The past few days have seen three incredibly important victories in the struggle around gay marriage.

On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down a ten-year-old ban on gay marriage in that state. Just days later, the Vermont legislature overturned a gubernatorial veto on a bill legalizing gay marriage in that state. And in the District of Columbia, legislators voted unanimously to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

Each of these victories would be significant enough on their own, but together they show the breadth and diversity of the growing gay marriage movement. A victory in crunchy Vermont, a northeastern state that was the first to recognize civil unions in 2000, might not seem that surprising. But who would have thought that cornfed, middle-America Iowa, of all places, would be the state currently putting California to shame when it comes to civil rights? And while the residents of the District of Columbia tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic, they are (unlike the politicians, who live in Alexandria, Georgetown or other white-flight enclaves) predominantly poor and African-American. Remember--the kind of people who supposedly gave Prop 8 the margin of victory in California, right?

There is something special worth noting about each of these victories. Ironically, the toughest battle was fought in liberal Vermont, where governor Jim Douglas vetoed the bill, before his decision was overridden (just barely) by a two-thirds majority of the state legislature. But the Vermont victory is crucial because it marks the first time that marriage equality has been mandated by a state legislature, not by the courts.

The Iowa decision is of potentially monumental importance for California--a fact of which the Iowa Supreme Court was most decidedly aware. By grounding their unanimous 69-page decision so firmly in the rhetoric of equal protection and civil rights, the Iowa court set a bold and important precedent. The Iowa decision cited the pending California case eight times and argued strongly that LGBT people are a historically oppressed minority worthy of judicial protection. And while the Iowa decision was made by a court, Iowa state House and Senate leaders released a pretty amazing statement in support of the decision. (Although, in an ironic postscript, the start of the gay marriage season in Iowa will be delayed several days due to state budget cuts.)

The DC decision is still in limbo, since residents of DC (remember, majority poor and Black?) do not have full suffrage rights like everyone else in the country. Their municipal legislation must be approved by Congress before it can become law. But whether the DC decision will be approved or struck down will be an important gauge of things to come.

As some commentators are pointing out, the challenge for gay rights activists in states with constitutional bans is still significant. But with these victories, and important decisions potentially on the horizon in at least nine other states, including New York, Maine, New Jersey and New Hampshire, it's impossible not to feel that momentum is building on our side.

the "dan white hero" guy

I actually did see this guy at the Prop 8 protest on Thursday, but my instinct was that he was just too crazy for me to want to get within picture-taking range.

But in case you have the sudden desire to vomit in your mouth a little, here is the grossest sign of the day from San Francisco.

more photos from the prop 8 hearings

Two words: Jumbo. Tron.

Some guerrilla modifications made to a Yes on 8 sign.



The ADORABLE Squad from King Middle School.


Bigots can't spell.


Those with narrow minds compensate with big signs.



This is a Pepsi ad. Yes, it is deliberately imitating the Obama campaign. I've got a whole 'nother blog post coming about that.

575 Castro Street, Harvey's old storefront.

my really gay day in san francisco

As many of you know, I spent Thursday in San Francisco, where the California State Supreme Court was holding hearing on the validity of Prop 8.

After getting up ass early to catch my 7am flight, I arrived at Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Francisco a little after 9. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the same location where Harvey Milk gave his famous "Hope Speech" to an estimated 350,000 people at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day parade.

There were most certainly not 350,000 people there on Thursday. In fact, the crowd was quite a bit smaller than I was expecting--I'd estimate about 1,000 from our side. There were also several hundred counterprotesters, armed with GIANT pre-printed signs, and a God-Hates-Fags-esque sound truck that kept circling the park. By the time I arrived, the counterprotesters had completely claimed the steps in front of the supreme court building. Most of the anti-Prop 8 folks had gravitated over to the park, where Marriage Equality had set up a Jumbotron to broadcast the hearings.

While the crowd was not huge, it was all the great things that have marked the other Prop 8 protests: young (many high school and college students, and even a contingent from King Middle School in Berkeley!), diverse, spirited, and delightfully queer. In between paying attention to the hearings, there were plenty of incidents of playful harrassment of the Yes on 8 people scattered in out midst--people chanting, holding hands, kissing and being extra-fabulous right in the face of the Yes folks, having fun making them as uncomfortable as possible. That whole spirit was summed up by one woman who had a sign that said "Fuck Your Discomfort, It's My Civil Rights."

The actual arguments were extremely technical and legalistic, as these things tend to be, and it was pretty hard to tell what the justices were thinking. There was a lot of back-and-forth over whether Prop 8 constituted an amendment or a revision of the constitution (a more involved process that requires a 2/3rds majority vote.) This seemed like a trivial argument to me for most of the three-hour hearing, until it finally sunk in in my head that the constitution of the state in which I live has formally been changed to deny me equal rights. Prop 22, the prior gay marriage ban, which passed in 2000 and was struck down by the state supreme court in May, opening the floodgates for the current round of marriages, was a statute, not a constitutional amendment. Now that discrimination is literally written into the constitution of California, it is going to be much more difficult (although certainly not impossible) to change it.

After the three-hour hearing concluded, the No on 8 folks had arranged to have a press conference on the courthouse steps--which of course the bigot brigade had been surrounding since early morning. But over the course of the hearing, an interesting thing had happened to the composition of the crowd around the steps. Little by little, pods of No on 8 people had crept over there, until the mix of affiliations in the crowd was about 50-50. Then tons of people from the Jumbotron area started coming over, so that by the time the press conference started, the balance of forces had tipped to our side, and, scream as they may (and believe me, they did) the H8ers couldn't drown out our cheers and chants as the lawyers and plaintiffs for our side came out of the courtroom.

There was a press conference, and then a brief but spirited chant war between the two sides, in which we gradually drove out most of the Yes on 8 crowd by attrition. Of course, this was the most fun part in my opinion. Not only does raising your voice with others feel really great, but there was something kind of fun about being able to be face to face with these people--not roped off in separate protest pens, as is usually the case. It gave people the opportunity to say "Really? What is your problem with me, really? I'm right here--explain it to me." Around the edges of the crowd, I noticed tons of conversations and arguments--people actually confronting the H8ers (nonviolently) and trying to change their minds. Of course, the people who came out with signs like "A Moral Wrong Can't Be a Civil Right" were definitely the hard edge of the Yes on 8 movement, so I'm not sure how many minds were actually changed. But maybe a few were, and the rest of them at least had to defend their bigoted position to someone who didn't agree with them. And they had to be in the minority for once, surrounded as they were by a bunch of angry queers, which can only be a good experience for them.

After the protest, I had a bunch of hours to kill before my flight back to LA. I had come up with a few ideas of things to do, but I realized I really only wanted to go hang out in the Castro. I think I'm starting to realize the appeal that this little neighborhood held for the gay refugees who first congregated there in the '70s. There is just something really, really nice about seeing rainbow flags EVERYWHERE (even on the trashcans!) and No on 8 placards in the window of nearly every shop and restaurant. Other gayborhoods, such as the West Village in New York and West Hollywood in LA, seem to have lost that sense of community identity that the Castro has retained, despite the fact that it has been gentrified to all hell the same as these other places have been.

After getting off the F line, the first thing I did was walk down Castro street to number 575, the sight of Harvey Milk's Castro Camera and the shooting location for many of the scenes in Milk. The storefront is now an antique shop. (It was rented out and transformed into the Castro Camera set for the film.) Painted on the building facade above the store is a mural with Harvey's memorable words, "You gotta give 'em hope."

I decided my gaycation would not be complete without lunch at Harvey's (no affiliation with Supervisor Milk, just a laid-back bar and restaurant with good food and delicious pear cider on tap). At the moment, they also have a great photo display of pictures of the Castro in the '70s up on the walls, courtesy of the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society.

The good thing about wearing a t-shirt that says "I Am a Victim of H8" is that everybody pretty much knows your deal. And no sooner had I sat down then two women who had also been at the protest invited me over to their table to have lunch with them. So I ended up having a great lunch and shooting the shit with a couple of lesbian teachers from the East Bay. And after hearing all about SF Gay Pride from them, I feel like us New Yorkers have definitely been missing out!

After lunch, which had become more like lupper by the time we were done, I hopped across the street to check out the new storefront exhibit space of the GLBT Historical Society--fascinating as always; that place is a treasure trove of artifacts from gay and radical history. Then it was time to catch the BART back to the airport.

Perhaps the best moment of the entire day came when I was waiting in line to board my flight home. I noticed a woman sitting in the waiting area who looked really familiar--in fact, I was pretty sure I had seen her on the Jumbotron that morning. It turned out to be Cheri S., who, with her partner Kathy (who was a little ahead of me in line) is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging Prop 8. And here she was, thanking me for coming to be part of the protest...while I was of course thanking her for being willing to be part of the utterly necessary, but still complex and exhausting, legal process.

And then, a very young looking woman kind of snuck up to us and was like, "Hey, I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. I was at the protest, too!" It turned out she is a high school senior in West LA, is out and the president of her high school's Gay-Straight Alliance, and flew to San Francisco on her own for the protest as well.

Maybe it was because I was really tired at that point, but this little moment nearly brought me to tears. Here I was with this couple who were probably about ten years older than me, and this high school kid who was ten years younger than me, all of us with experiences that were probably really different, but the same in many ways, three generations of the movement together in the San Francisco airport.

Since Southwest Airlines doesn't have assigned seats, Cheri and Kathy invited me to sit with them on the flight back, which was really nice since I'm sure they were exhausted. We talked about the movement, we shared our coming-out stories, and at the end of the flight we all exchanged emails, and then I waited for the high school kid from West LA and got her email too. (As an added bonus, I got a sly "I like your shirt" and a big smile from one of the flight attendants, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.)

The next steps for the movement remain to be seen. There seems to be a consensus forming around the idea that the supreme court will *not* overturn Prop 8, but that it will uphold the validity of the 18,000 marriages conducted in the few months gay marriage was legal. But, really, anything could happen. The next major mobilization point seems to be "Decision Day," whatever weekday in the next 90 days the court decides to issue its ruling. It will either be a day of celebration or a day of protest.

But regardless of the court's decision, I think the cat is out of the closet on gay marriage. While it will take significantly more grassroots organization than currently exists to keep the movement going, there are definite signs of positive things to come. I'm particularly excited about this.

snap decision GO

Despite my extraordinarily busy schedule (writing a feature and a TV spec, short film that I wrote going into production, midterm and scholarship deadlines and sibling visit rapidly approaching), I WILL be in San Francisco on Thursday!

In a bit of unabashed product placement, I owe this decision entirely to Southwest Airlines.  After bemoaning the lack of direct bus and rail connections between downtown LA and SF and the slowness of such methods of transportation (10 hours, Amtrak? Really???), I checked Southwest's website and realized that I can fly from LAX to SFO and back on the same day for a very reasonable $139--only slightly more than most bus options and a fraction of the travel time.

See you at the State Supreme Court on Thursday!

prop 8 actions THIS WEEK!

If you haven't heard, the California State Supreme Court will be having hearings on the validity of Prop 8 this Thursday, March 5.  A ruling--which, if favorable, could invalidate Prop 8--is expected within 90 days following the hearing.

There are going to be numerous actions across California and the US in the coming days leading up to the hearing.  The night of Wednesday, March 4 has been declared an "Eve of Justice" with protests and candlelight marches organized in at least 30 cities.

In Los Angeles, there will be a rally and march through downtown starting at 5:30pm on Wednesday.  Angelenos can also watch a live broadcast of the hearings on Thursday morning from Los Angeles City Hall or from the West Hollywood Auditorium.

The main event, of course, will be in San Francisco, where the hearings are being held.  The default convergence point is Civic Center Park, which borders both City Hall and the Supreme Court building.  (Yes, the same place that Harvey Milk delivered his "Hope Speech" at Gay Pride 1978, back when it was called Gay Freedom Day.)  I don't have a good sense of how many people will be gathering there, but my sense is...a lot.

In other Prop 8 news, the beautiful "Fidelity" video that you've all probably teared up over has now been viewed over one million times on the Courage Campaign website.

PROP 8 IN COURT MARCH 5

It's been confirmed that the California State Supreme Court will hear arguments on Prop 8 on March 5, with a ruling to follow within 90 days afterward.

The hearing will be held in San Francisco. While courts are supposed to be neutral, yadda, yadda, I think this can only be a good thing for our side.

Numerous civil rights and LGBT groups, as well as California State Attorney General Jerry Brown, have filed briefs in favor of overturning Prop 8. Meanwhile, Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr) and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund have filed a brief arguing that not only should Prop 8 be upheld, but that all 18,000+ marriages conducted while gay marriage was legal in California should be invalidated.

In response, the people at Courage Campaign started a petition and made this video:


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

One can't help thinking that if ads like *this* had been running during election season, things might have turned out a little bit differently.

I'm sure there will be protests and other events leading up to and on March 5. Check Join the Impact for more info.

obama watch: slap in the face in 3, 2, 1...

I have a confession to make.

I am guilty of the greatest sin of a student of history: forgetting the lessons of the past. I was seduced--reluctantly, half-heartedly, and when I absolutely should have known better. I was charmed, at least a bit, by image and illusion, into forgetting a bitter reality that eight years of activism have proven to be true again and again.

On election night, I watched thousands of ecstatic African-Americans...nay, ecstatic Americans...pour into the streets of New York, Washington, DC and other cities, overwhelmed with joy. And it melted even my cynical fuck-the-two-party-system heart. This was a historic moment, to be sure. A great barrier had fallen, and I'll admit that even I was at least partially taken in by the messianic Obama glow. Despite the warning cries of the little Marxist on my shoulder (I think it might be Peter Camejo) I started, almost, to believe that this guy was at least somewhat genuine. I know, I know! As a revolutionary socialist and a long-term third-party organizer, I of all people should know better. What can I say? The Obama phenomenon (Obamenon?) is powerful indeed. I daresay very few on the left escaped that tractor beam.

Thankfully, history saw fit to correct my momentary delusion, and hastily indeed. Obama is not even in office yet, and already he's working overtime to tarnish that shiny halo as much as possible. The sparkle started to fade with his first appointment, power Zionist Rahm Emanuel, and took a big hit when Obama decided to retain Iran-Contra-entangled former CIA director Robert Gates, Rumsfeld's heir apparent, as Secretary of Defense, and appoint mysoginist globalization guru Larry Summers as head of the National Economic Council.

My fellow degenerates, we have now reached 100% disilluionment. What was the slap in the face that shook me out of the temporary hypnosis that foolishly made me believe we could expect any genuine change from the two-party system? Why, of course, Obama's choice to appoint anti-gay, anti-abortion evangelical zealot Rick Warren to give the invocation on Inauguration Day.

Who, might you ask, is Rick Warren? He is not just your average crazy Christian. He is the pastor of Saddleback Church, the Orange County megachurch that provided a significant portion of the money and foot soldiers behind Prop 8.

Your next question, quite justifiably, might be, why? Why, out of all the thousands of religious leaders in the US, did Obama decide to pick this guy? Because he's only too eager to pander to the Christian right? Because he doesn't care nearly as much about the activist base that propelled him to victory as they do about him? Because he thinks that progressives will continue to fogive him because they're so happy to be rid of Bush? Or D, all of the above?

Obama might feel like a rock star right now, but if you ask me, he is playing with fire. When you build up people's hopes and dreams and then dash them, when you hold out the promise of a better world and then snatch it away, people tend to get angry. Professional liberals are already in a tizzy of hurt and confusion over how Obama's administration is shaping up. And recent events--from the surge of Prop 8 protests, to the Republic factory occupation, to the current occupation of the New School--have shown how quickly the deep anger churning under the surface of US society can flare up.

If Obama is not careful, I think there is a good chance he will be remembered not as a Lincoln or a Kennedy, but as much more like another liberal who rode to victory on a wave of dicontent with war, racism and inequality--Lyndon B. Johnson--who, coincidentally, holds the record for the largest inagural crowd in history. 1.2 million people descended on Washington to watch him take office in January 1965, aglow with his promises of a War on Poverty. Instead, Johnson delivered a war in Vietnam and an increasingly violent crackdown on the protest movements of the '60s--in many cases, on the very people who had helped him get elected just a few years earlier. The result was four years of rage--and the Democrats' loss in 1968, as their young, progressive base came to the realization that they change they wanted was something that politicians were neither interested in nor capable of delivering.

Of course, no one can predict what an Obama administration will bring, and it's useless and simplistic to try to fit the template of history past onto the current situation. Indeed, in many ways, the world we live in today is far more volatile than America in the 1960s. I am indeed hopeful for the years ahead. I think change is on the horizon. But not at all--indeed, least of all--because of who is in the White House.

jon stewart + mike huckabee = awwwwesoooome!

In case you missed it, here is the full clip of Jon Stewart nailing Mike Huckabee on gay marriage on last week's Daily Show.

Huckabee was on promoting his book, Do the Right Thing, "a vision for a smarter, fairer type of politics," and Jon Stewart, bless his heart, responded with a hearty "WTF?"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

support newsweek on gay marriage article

Newsweek, a magazine not particularly known as a bastion of raging liberalism, has come under fire for running a cover article on "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage."

The article, which is a fairly detailed scriptural analysis supported with quotes from a variety of Christian and Jewish religious leaders, is not particularly radical. In fact, it's resolutely pro-monogamy and even pretty anti-divorce. It simply makes the argument that the definition of marriage has changed greatly in the past several thousand years, and that trying to look for scriptural pronouncements on marriage is about as sensible as trying to follow the instructions in Leviticus on the proper way to slaughter a goat. It also argues (gasp!) for an interpretation of Christianity based on love and inclusiveness.

This was apparently unacceptable to the right-wing American Family Association, which launched a letter-writing campaign that inundated Newsweek with over 40,000 letters in a matter of days and resulted in the magazine having to shut down the online comments section associated with the article.

The Human Rights Campaign has set up a webpage where you can easily send a personalized letter of support to Newsweek, thanking them for taking a stand on the issue.

After you read the article and send in your letter, it's worth checking out a few other things on their website--particularly a new poll that shows support for gay marriage and other expressions of gay civil rights growing, despite a number of election setbacks across the country. I was also particularly moved by this article (and a follow-up article that covers some of the same ground) from Newsweek editor David Jefferson on his gay wedding.

another great idea for dec. 10

After someone named Mark Worthen, whom I don't know, left an interesting comment on my post about Day Without a Gay, I blog-stalked him and discovered Culture and Current Affairs out of Park City, Utah.

I really like the alternative actions that that Park City area activists have proposed for Dec. 10. And Mark also has some excellent and well-reasoned articles about why he opposes a proposed boycott of the Sundance Film Festival.

dec. 10 protest in los angeles

Apparently there is indeed going to be a protest on Dec. 10, Day Without a Gay, in Los Angeles. The details:

7pm start time
West Hollywood
good ol' Santa Monica & San Vicente

I don't have much more info on this protest, but it does have a Facebook page.

another fun video on prop 8

Wait 'til about 1:30 for the kicker.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

prop 8: the musical

Jack Black is Jesus. That's all you need to know.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

day without a gay, dec. 10

Organizers have called for December 10, International Human Rights Day, to be A Day Without a Gay. The official website recommends that LGBTQ folks boycott work on Dec. 10 and spend the day volunteering for a social justice cause.

While I'm all for coordinated actions that promote visibility, I have to say I'm a bit ambivalent about this campaign. Perhaps it's the fact that many--perhaps most--American workers don't have the liberty to "call in gay" without some consequences for their jobs in this perilous economic time, and those that do are probably already lucky enough to be in a work environment where diversity is respected. (Interestingly, there is already quite a debate raging on this exact issue on the Day Without a Gay discussion board.) Or perhaps it's that I think *going* to work on Dec. 10 and organizing your friends and co-workers to do something to support the fight for gay rights can be just as useful, if not more so.

So, if you are one of the many people out there who can't skip work for any number of reasons, or, like me, you're a grad student with the economic power of a potato chip, here are five suggestions of alternative/additional actions you can take on Dec. 10 to support gay rights.

1. Go to a protest, organizing meeting, teach-in, etc. if one is being held in your area, and invite some friends to go with you. (I know there is already a demonstration planned for San Francisco; I'm sure there are others I don't know about.)

2. Wear a t-shirt/sticker/button/armband/whatever showing your support for gay rights AND (this is the important part) talk to people about why you're wearing it.

3. Organize your friends/co-workers/classmates/whoever to go to a screening of Milk (but NOT, for crap's sake, at a Cinemark theater). Don't just go see the movie--plan to go out for drinks/food/coffee afterward and talk about what you learned from it.

4. Send a message to California legislators to support State Senate Resolution 7 (Leno) and Assembly Resolution 5 (Ammiano),which would make it official state policy to invalidate Prop 8.

5. If you're gay, come out to someone new. (If you're wondering why I included this, see #3 first.)