Wanted: A More Potent Protest

I don’t know whether New Yorkers have heard yet, but the gays are angry.
Count me among them.
Yesterday’s vote in the New York State Senate on marriage equality did not go our way. So it’s unsurprising to receive an email today about how tonight, December 3, there will be a protest in Union Square. I think that is a legitimate response and it makes sense for a community to come together after a ridiculous rejection of our basic civil rights.
But I cannot help but also think that there are other things to do. Nobody should call himself or herself a homo today—or a friend of gay people—unless he/she has written a note to thank the Senators who stood by our side yesterday. These are days for emails and phone messages and letters—I hear that the old-fashioned letter is still very much a smart way to go—and it would not be a bad time to write a few checks to a few campaigns. (Well, not me. I don't have a damn job.) Also, a few hostile emails, phone messages, letters sent to the bad guys would be nice, too.
As for gathering in Union Square, good enough. Nothing wrong with rallying the base. But I think we need to have some marches in the suburbs and upstate, whether the State Senators who screwed us—and not in a good way—actually live and work and do a lousy job of representing their gay and lesbian constituents.
We could go a bit more global in our perspective, too. This would be an fine time to tell our straight sisters and brothers that we are going to stop going to their goddamn weddings. That we will be passing on Cousin Susie’s engagement party. That maybe, just maybe, we are done looking at and buying from those online gift registries. It’s time at least to consider in a serious way some serious action—methods that might hit back in an economic way. I’m not sure whether that would work or if it would just wind up hurting gay and lesbian people who work for the companies where we would be cutting back. But it’s clear that our present is a little too sweet and not quite as effective as it needs to be. A big brainstorming session is needed.