How bout some things we could do in Seattle? I am fed up and frustrated and def. feel like I need to start doing more than posting stories about Lt. Choi or other people in the movement and their efforts on facebook,I want to do something that has real power behind it. Any ideas?
What do you think that the president looks out the window every morning and thinks, "what jackass has chained themselves to the fence today?" I think we can be a little more clever than a silly little chaining, we might as well go full on teabag and get our poster boards out.
It would need to be small-scale, so as to be realizable, and have real consequences for the participants. Marching around is common and represents little to no real "cost" for the participants. Nothing is on the line. Six people getting arrested in, say, the federal building is worth more than 200 people marching around outside it.
Freedom Riders and lunch counter crashers in the Civil Right's Era were "Putting Their Bodies On The Line".
They faced (and usually endured) real violence and danger.
Yuppie photo-op protests are NOT "Putting Our Bodies On The Line" and it is an insult to people who did to say it.
Go to Iran.
Nigeria.
Uganda.
Yemen.
Engage in some clever Gay street theatre.
Then tell us you're Putting Our Bodies On The Line.....
Dan, I continue to think the DOMA arrests are a really, really good idea. My partner and I would be willing to participate, but someone with access to national attention/press/whatever needs to head it up. I think that should be you. It's your idea, and you can get enough people's attention to fund this movement (plane tickets, lawyer fees, etc) and get enough people involved to have a couple show up every day.
I'm pretty good at organizing big hassle events, and would be happy to help, but having someone like you actively involved in organizing it would make a huge difference. Put your time where your mouth is.
@8: yeah, I'll give props to the Iranian protestors. But civil disobedience sure beats the he'll out of plunking down $250 for an HRC dinner and thinking of yourself to be an activist
" A new phase in the gay rights movement—the era serious civil disobedience era—has arrived. It's time. "
Alright, let's ignore the errors in this writing and focus on what it blatantly forgets - this is not the era of serious civil disobedience in the name of gay rights. Though admirable, how the FUCK does this even come close to comparing to the very serious, and very much more important, civil disobedience organized by ACT-UP and others during the AIDS crisis?
Really, Dan, this is the ARRIVAL of serious civil disobedience? Hardly. A return to, maybe, but certainly still just a shadow of what was.
how precious. daniel is just laying claim to the idea behind this new strangely/poorly worded era. he's not responsible for the idea. "our bodies on the line" is a bit overstated when we are talking about these types of protests. most importantly, he's not doing anything, except maybe larry king or keith olberman.
he's too busy arranging viewings of amateur porn films while bitching about fellow passengers on planes, smoking areas at airports, facial hair on hipsters, enthusiasm from gay youth and the type of tea available in his local yuppie tea emporium. he doesn't affect change; he's a do-nothing cranky old man.
not sure what this Era will be called when all is said and done, i hope it makes more sense that what Daniel wrote. one thing is clear - Mr. Savage won't be remembered for having anything to do with the efforts. he'll be remembered as just another self-aggrandizing media whore.
While I find the use of "Daniel" offensive, this is correct: "he's too busy arranging viewings of amateur porn films while bitching about fellow passengers on planes, smoking areas at airports, facial hair on hipsters, enthusiasm from gay youth and the type of tea available in his local yuppie tea emporium. he doesn't affect change; he's a do-nothing cranky old man."
Dan, this is - what? The fourth through twentieth or so post you've made along these lines? (I don't know the amount, but I know I've read it many times before.) If you want to become an organizer of civil disobedience, what the fuck are you waiting for?
This is interesting... but I wonder if it would work. Indeed, I wonder what "work" would even mean--what would constitute success for such a project? Is there an explicit goal? Would it be the repeal of DOMA? An executive order related to it? I'm not trying to be negative, but I've lived most of my adult life in San Francisco and my last few years in DC, and I've seen a lot of various protests--many of which have left me scratching my head.
Something that happens over and over again is won't be considered news for long; it's not like the Post would be camped out every day for the update. Coordinating with local media for each couple is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how much press even that would yield--or how positive the coverage would be.
Research suggests that one of the biggest predictors of attitudes about gay rights are whether or not a person has a close friend or family member who is gay. Maybe that's the ticket... Could gay couples commit to "adopting" their Congress member? Get him or her to meet up privately with a few gay constituents and get first hand accounts from the people he or she represents of why DOMA (and other issues) matter to them?
Not sure what to do about Obama. I'm sure there are some Capital Hill folk who could get an audience...
@15, 17,18
At the risk of sounding like a newbie-commenter brown-nosing Canadian, I have to respectfully disagree. Entertaining posts are just that, entertaining, which is what people need when faced with all the other crap in the world. (And if you pull the stick out of your ass, it won't hurt so much to laugh.) As far as the rest of your post, having read Dan's books on children and marriage, I can assure you he has put a very human face on something that I didn't know much about (never adopted, not gay), and while I've never been anti same-sex marriage/adopting, I honestly didn't give it a lot of thought before. Now, I do. I think I'm pretty average, so if this was my response, I'd imagine a lot of others have felt the same way. (I'd also imagine most "self-aggrandizing media whores" don't take the time to travel around answering a million college students' questions about the sex ed they didn't receive in school.) God, I'll quit before I start to sound like a "Make the world a better place" motivational poster...
If you're interested in fighting for equal rights for all, then join Seattle OUTProtest. SOP meets weekly, every Sunday, noon to 2 pm, at Kaladi Brothers Coffee on East Pike.
That word seems to have been omitted from your post.
Dan Choi, 4 others and 1 trans person. A trans person faces more uncertainty in the hands of the police and that fact deserves attention.
In all seriousness, it is a really good idea.
rewrite!
Putting YOur Bodies On The Line
Freedom Riders and lunch counter crashers in the Civil Right's Era were "Putting Their Bodies On The Line".
They faced (and usually endured) real violence and danger.
Yuppie photo-op protests are NOT "Putting Our Bodies On The Line" and it is an insult to people who did to say it.
Go to Iran.
Nigeria.
Uganda.
Yemen.
Engage in some clever Gay street theatre.
Then tell us you're Putting Our Bodies On The Line.....
I'm pretty good at organizing big hassle events, and would be happy to help, but having someone like you actively involved in organizing it would make a huge difference. Put your time where your mouth is.
Alright, let's ignore the errors in this writing and focus on what it blatantly forgets - this is not the era of serious civil disobedience in the name of gay rights. Though admirable, how the FUCK does this even come close to comparing to the very serious, and very much more important, civil disobedience organized by ACT-UP and others during the AIDS crisis?
Really, Dan, this is the ARRIVAL of serious civil disobedience? Hardly. A return to, maybe, but certainly still just a shadow of what was.
he's too busy arranging viewings of amateur porn films while bitching about fellow passengers on planes, smoking areas at airports, facial hair on hipsters, enthusiasm from gay youth and the type of tea available in his local yuppie tea emporium. he doesn't affect change; he's a do-nothing cranky old man.
not sure what this Era will be called when all is said and done, i hope it makes more sense that what Daniel wrote. one thing is clear - Mr. Savage won't be remembered for having anything to do with the efforts. he'll be remembered as just another self-aggrandizing media whore.
Dan, this is - what? The fourth through twentieth or so post you've made along these lines? (I don't know the amount, but I know I've read it many times before.) If you want to become an organizer of civil disobedience, what the fuck are you waiting for?
Something that happens over and over again is won't be considered news for long; it's not like the Post would be camped out every day for the update. Coordinating with local media for each couple is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how much press even that would yield--or how positive the coverage would be.
Research suggests that one of the biggest predictors of attitudes about gay rights are whether or not a person has a close friend or family member who is gay. Maybe that's the ticket... Could gay couples commit to "adopting" their Congress member? Get him or her to meet up privately with a few gay constituents and get first hand accounts from the people he or she represents of why DOMA (and other issues) matter to them?
Not sure what to do about Obama. I'm sure there are some Capital Hill folk who could get an audience...
In any case, good luck.
At the risk of sounding like a newbie-commenter brown-nosing Canadian, I have to respectfully disagree. Entertaining posts are just that, entertaining, which is what people need when faced with all the other crap in the world. (And if you pull the stick out of your ass, it won't hurt so much to laugh.) As far as the rest of your post, having read Dan's books on children and marriage, I can assure you he has put a very human face on something that I didn't know much about (never adopted, not gay), and while I've never been anti same-sex marriage/adopting, I honestly didn't give it a lot of thought before. Now, I do. I think I'm pretty average, so if this was my response, I'd imagine a lot of others have felt the same way. (I'd also imagine most "self-aggrandizing media whores" don't take the time to travel around answering a million college students' questions about the sex ed they didn't receive in school.) God, I'll quit before I start to sound like a "Make the world a better place" motivational poster...
http://seattleoutprotest.org/