Ginger wanted to share her recent experience with the HRC’s No Excuses Campaign. And when M.G. reminded me this week about the National Equality March, it got me in a political mood. So, I’ll let Ginger take it away….
I’d like to start by saying i’m not a blogger. I read some of the blogs that my fiancee Wasabi turned me onto but mostly for the pictures. But, I recently experienced an event that I believe should be shared among this homo-love-festing community. I have been a financial contributor to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) for a few years now and I read it’s blog regularly as I’m kind of an unmotivated political junkie. Sure I keep up with current events and world news, and I call my congressperson when I have strong feelings about an issue (like the Matthew Sheppard hate crimes bill which just passed) but I’m not at community organizing meetings or anything. I received an email from the HRC’s No Excuses Campaign at the beginning of August asking people to sign up to meet with their Congressperson over the August recess and give real faces to the LGBT struggle. I signed up, not actually expecting to participate, but planning to follow the results of the meetings taking place around the country. Well I got a call from an HRC organizer saying the meeting has already been set up and I just need to show up. They emailed me a list of talking points and recommended conversation topics. Sentator Mary Landrau (actually her senior staffer who we met with) from LA are already supporters of LGBT issues and she was a co-sponsor of the Hate Crimes Bill. The topics discussed by the 6 of us HRC members covered a wide range of issues, from immigration to DADT to DOMA. I was the only non-parent and the youngest, but I left the meeting more motivated than I was when I entered the state building. I think every person in that meeting can agree, the words “young and in love” and “I want to marry her” truly resonate.
Our stories and our love can be powerful vehicles for change!
Anyone going to the National Equality March??
I think (at least I hope) that a majority of people against gay marriage just haven’t met a gay couple. I feel uneasy coming out sometimes because I never know what reception I will get, but I feel like it is important. If you know something it is harder to hate it.
I am missing the Equality March, by total accident. I live in DC, but J and I had bought plane tickets to do wedding stuff before we knew about the march.