How Do You Make The Invisible, Visible?

A new stage in the struggle for civil rights: a day without gays.

We are calling for a nationwide strike and economic boycott by all Gays and Lesbians AND OUR ALLIES, whether straight, bisexual or transgendered, on December 10th, 2008, International Human Rights Day.
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WHAT TO DO?

Strike: call in gay, shut down your business, take the day off. For some, this may be a burden, but we must be willing to make sacrifices in our fight for equal rights, including the right to marry.

Boycott: whether you strike or not, just don't buy anything or spend money. We need to show how much the LGBT dollar supports the American economy.

Volunteer or Protest: don't just disappear for the day. Visit www.daywithoutagay.org for a list of volunteer and/or protest opportunities.

Obviously a play on A Day Without A Mexican, the rather prophetic 2004 movie that became real in 2006 as the GOP-manufactured illegal immigration battle heated up.  While boycotts/strikes are indeed very effective tools in our toolkit, I was kinda down on the idea at that stage in 2006.

Not that I thought it would be wrong to employ these tactics, just that I believed there were other steps that should be used first so we'd have somewhere to escalate.  In hindsight I probably was wrong, though I see the current situation as slightly different.  My reasoning now hasn't changed from 2006, but I think some circumstances have changed--trivial differences, perhaps, that I might expand on later.

Anyway, I hope that we can mobilize for something like this.  Along with the general boycotting/patronage I mentioned the other day a single-day event can really bring it on home, particularly as part of a strategic escalation path with decent followup, which we seem to be seeing.

ntodd