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I've been volunteering at the No on 8 phone banks. When I asked friends to join me, I was told "Sorry, I don't have the time."
When I asked friends to join me as a counter demonstrator at a Yes on Proposition 8 rally (I held a sign that said "Jesus would vote No on 8"), my straight friends and my lesbian friends stepped up to the plate. My gay friends said "Can't do it. I have brunch plans." or "Sorry, that's a Sunday and I'll be sleeping in."
When I stood in front of the bars in West Hollywood on a Saturday night attempting to recruit people (primarily gay men) to volunteer for No on 8 phone banks, I was met with total and complete apathy. When I asked for donations from those people, who I might point out were wearing $200 jeans and heading into bars where mixed drinks go for $10 a pop, I was told "Sorry. I can't donate." (Over a 2.5 hour shift in which I talked to dozens of people, I got one person to volunteer and managed to collect a measly $50 from one guy and $20 from another guy.)
If Proposition 8 passes, it won't be the fault of Diane Feinstein or Barbara Boxer or Arnold Schwarzenegger or the Mormon Church or other religious fundamentalists or (supposed) mismanagement of the No on 8 campaign. It will be the fault of the gay community which put more value on hitting the bars, going to the gym, brunching with friends, sleeping in on a Sunday morning and spending money on designer clothes/top-shelf liquor/cover charges at cheesy bars than on banding together and sacrificing some pleasures and comforts for the longer term goal of insuring that every GLBT person in this country will eventually have equality under the law.
If Prop 8 passes and the gay community wants to know who was really to blame, we'll only have to look in the mirror.
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