Another One Bites the Dust

Did you notice? Yesterday was "A Day Without A Gay" Day. According to their website, "A day without gays would be tragic because it would be a day without love." Fascinating! I suppose that can only mean that homosexuals are the only humans capable of love. Quite a surprise to me!

So, yesterday, they were encouraged to "call in 'gay'", not sick. Of course, in Arizona that would be sufficient grounds for dismissal, so I'm not sure of the wisdom of such actions, but still ... who knows? (In Arizona, if a gay business owner wants to fire a heterosexual worker because he/she is straight, that, too, is legal.) The goal was "to shift our strong feelings about injustice toward service" by using the day off (that they stole from their employers) to do kind things ... you know ... to show "the world how we love" (as contrasted with what they called "anger" of recent weeks). Some also called for all of the "gay community" to boycott any economic activity to show the financial muscle of the gay community. Others consider that a mistake. The whole idea is actually a spin-off of a similar "Day Without a Mexican" event by Latinos to fight the American bias against illegal immigrants who are, oh, by the way, illegal. That one didn't work out so well. That particular group still remains illegal. The day was intentionally selected to coincide with International Human Rights Day. You see, the only humans who have the capacity to love are not being allowed to do what they want and that's not right. Still, I wonder. Did you notice? Even if we have 10% of our population (that number is likely a gross exaggeration, tending more toward 2%) who are "gay" and some percentage (not nearly all) of those stayed away, would we notice?

You know, volunteering is a good thing. Solidarity is often a good thing. Standing for what you believe in is generally a good thing. Still, I have never actually seen a boycott succeed at what it was intended to accomplish. Statistically, boycotts "have had negligible impact on their targets." So maybe, just maybe, if the "gay community" wants to show the love, skipping work and not buying from their heterosexual neighbors isn't the best choice. (I'd tell the Christian community the same thing.) Maybe folks ought to reconsider that strategy.