Day With(out) a Gay

Dec 10

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Today, December 10, 2008, is being hailed by gay rights advocates as “Day Without a Gay.” Why? Because it rhymes and it’s kinda catchy. In all seriousness, today is also International Human Rights today and it’s being used as an opportunity to call attention to the anti-gay state initiatives that recently passed in California, Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida along with the continuing lack of recognition for gay rights in most states. It’s sort of like a sick out, but instead it’s a gay out. All over the country, gay men and women (along with every alternative label you can imagine) have called into work gay. Lest you think this is a freebie day off, those who participate in the protest are being asked to volunteer their time at gay-friendly (or at least neutral) non-profits which always need another hand or twelve. Basically, gay people are standing up and saying “You deprive me of basic human rights every day, so for just one day, I’m depriving you of my service.”

It sounds like a pretty cool idea in principle. In practice, I’m not sure how many men and women are actually doing it. I’m clearly not — I’m sitting at my desk doing both my regular day job and my writing job here. I, in fact, did consider taking part in the day. Then I realized that if all the gays and lesbians where I worked called out gay, the place would shut down for a day. Okay, not really, but pretty close and there might be some mission-critical elements that went undone for a day. Of course, maybe I work somewhere unusual: two out of seven senior executives are gay and another five or so department heads, let alone the individual faculty and staff. Then again, maybe working in such a gay-positive environment and living in a generally gay-friendly state makes me complacent and maybe that’s why I’m not participating. But I’m not sure that explains the fact that I don’t, offhand, know of anyone participating today.

Volunteer opportunities, along with general information, are listed at the website daywithoutagay.org. In all honesty, though, I was disheartened to see only three volunteer opportunities listed for Massachusetts. Heck, I’m sure there are more than three GLBT organizations in the state, let alone all the other groups that could use some help. A quick search shows that most states are in similar or worse shape, except maybe California. Really, I’m pretty surprised by that given that Day Without a Gay was not a left-field thing. I saw sporadic articles about it across the internet over the past month. If I found it without even paying attention, I can’t see how this protest opportunity could not have easily come to the attention of many more non-profits that could have posted themselves on the website and received some benefit today.

Maybe I should have done this. Maybe I should have called my boss this morning and said “I’m calling in gay. I’m going to deprive you of my services for a day and offer them for free to someone who really needs them.” But would it work? (I don’t think anyone even noticed that I was out sick yesterday.) I think passive resistance protest is too…well…passive for me. I’d rather go to a rally where the impact of thousands of people can be seen by sheer volume if nothing else than try to make quiet waves. I’m not disparaging the idea, but I don’t think it’s the right one for me.

Maybe this article is the way I turn it around and make it work for me. By showing up to work (and let’s face it, I haven’t been so prolific with the writing lately), I got you to read this article. That reminded you that there are people fighting for equal recognition under the law. Whether you meant to or not, I got you to spend a day with a gay. That’s how I’ve made my difference.