Day Without Gay: How About "Every Day With Gay"
Tuesday December 9, 2008
Wednesday, December 10th, LGBT advocacy organization JointheImpact urges LGBT people to act on what it calls Day Without Gay. Instead of spending routine hours in cubicles, LGBTers are being asked to call in from work and lend a hand by volunteering at a gay organization. LGBTers are also urged to close their wallets when it comes to spending on this day.
Calling in "gay" for one day may seem like a noble concept. But, shouldn't the message be "help a gay every day" instead?
There is a larger, more complex, picture here that includes a multitude of circumstances and situations that takes more than a day to unravel. Spending our lavender bills at businesses that support LGBT people should be an every day habit. Speaking out against businesses that support anti-causes should be a regular activity. Volunteering at a local LGBT organization or support service should be a regular part of our lives, not just a hallow gesture on a day to prove to others that we are worthwhile.
Too many of our LGBT people live in poverty. The number of homeless LGBT youth playing musical shelters is in the thousands. Our closeted gays are left without support before or after coming out. Our elderly are being left in a post-club vacuum of invisibility. Our people of color continue to be disconnected from both general society and the LGBT community itself. Far too many of our gay-friendly businesses are suffering along with every other business in this time of economic slowdown. We need us every day of the year and not just in an effort to ask others for acceptance. Most LGBT people are real people in real situations with fragile circumstances that can lead to personal and fiscal meltdown.
Compromising job stability is not something everyone can do, nor is it in everyone's best interest—especially in our current economic climate. Keep in mind, in 30 states it is still legal for LGBT people to be fired just for being queer. We are accustomed to viewing LGBT people as a monolithic group of individuals swimming in piles of pink dollars. We are also in the habit of thinking that true liberation comes in the form of external acceptance, instead of all powerful self-affirmation. Our LGBT value need not be proved and our assistance to the many LGBT people in need should be a year round gesture not a one time red bucket jingle outside of gaymart. Let us advocate for our own clean house.
Observance of Day Without Gay will be different for each person. On this day and here forth, I will show my impact as an openly gay man by making into habit the actions that will truly empower our community. I'm going to volunteer on Saturday as planned. I'm going to avoid anti-gay businesses like I do every day and I will let the businesses with pride stickers know that I am there because they are there. I will help uplift others before and after they come out with support and resources. I will continue to advocate for us. And with your efforts, the health of our entire community shall be testament to our impact to the rest of the world.
Image © JointheImpact.
Comments
Our LGBT value need not be proved- This is the most decadent statement I think i have ever read from a bloggist that is part of our community.
IF you really think in the almost insurmountable odds against us by the very organized religious groups that out number our efforts 10 to 1, both in terms of persons and dollars, that you could even state this is a simplistic statement of someone who has lived within a metropolitian area for way too many years, in a protected progressive gay accepting neighborhood. The world is much larger than the enclave you mst be exisitng within. As Malcom X, and Martin Luther King and other in Black resistance movement know, it was through withholding of dollars from the economy that real progress was made. Be it boycoting of buss systems in Alabama, or restauarnt and movei theatres that segregated. Day without a gay was to be impactful becuase it shows people who much we truly impact the overall economy and deserve equal, not secondary rights to core fundamental rights they take for granted.
If think we should volunteer more to GLBT causes, then state that, if you think we should shop and support GLBT businesses, be sure that they are actually GLBT owned, as many popular GLBT businesses are now sold by their their GLBT owners and owned by investment partners who made wise business buying decisions who aren’t even gay, but simply have reaped the reward of prior owners reputation and the rainbow flag posted in the window.
Hi Doug,
The core of my message is two fold. One: I do believe we should not have to continually prove our worth with “look at how valuable we are messages.” Are businesses and advertising agencies not full aware of the economic impact LGBT people have in the marketplace? The Williams Institute at UCLA has even published reports of the economic impact of allowing (or not allowing) same-sex marriage in individual states. We already know our economic impact and can spread that message without putting LGBT people who are not in a possible to walk out today at risk. Also, fundamentally I think we should turn much of our focus inward because few recognize or even address the need to help our own LGBT people every day, not just on a day of protest.
I think you make a very good point. It’s also worth remembering that if you’re going to boycott a business you should also write to them to tell them that you are boycotting them and why. This might give them an incentive to improve.
I really must get more politically involved in this country (Ireland). I spout off on messageboards and am quite apathetic in real life. Bad of me.
TRiG.