Staff Blog
Fight the H8: Are you calling in gay tomorrow?
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| daywithoutagay.org |
December 10, 2008 (that's tomorrow), is International Human Rights Day. In response to the recent passing of Proposition 8, it's also been deemed Day Without a Gay.
Daywithoutagay.org encourages members of the LGBTQ community across the U.S. not simply to call in sick tomorrow, but to "call in gay." Says the site:
Gay people and our allies are compassionate, sensitive, caring, mobilized, and programmed for success. A day without gays would be tragic because it would be a day without love.
A day without gays would also, on a more practical level, be a day without a shitload of American workers. So even if you don't notice a drop in love levels tomorrow, you'll for-sure be out a productive co-worker for five, if enough people participate. (It just goes to show that if you screw with people's rights for long enough, maybe they'll move to New Zealand and no one will be left to fix your computers, write your favorite books and run your companies.)
Furthermore, gays, lesbians and their straight supporters — heteros can call in vicariously gay — are encouraged to resist the day-off couch and volunteer with human-rights orgs; their Web site lists state-by-state volunteer opportunities (Philly's include Equality PA and the ACLU).
If you're not able/willing to call in gay tomorrow, there's still plenty you can do, including spreading the word on social networks and volunteering on your own time.
I’m going to spend tomorrow continuing my job search. Maybe I’ll find an employer who doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, but rather, prefers present workers to absent ones. This strike is silliness.
I think it’s a good idea in theory, but I would lose my job, not for being LGB or T, but for not coming to work. In this economy? I’d be crazy. Sorry
Isn’t there something else we can do?
Sure, Emily — there’s tons you can do, the most important of which is volunteering for human rights orgs (like the ACLU and Equality PA). I don’t blame you at all for not wanting to lose your job for “calling in gay,” but it still sucks to think about the fact that there are 30 states in this country in which you could be fired just for being gay.
No, I am not calling in gay tomorrow. A co-worker of me asked me if I was going to and I said, “What!?!” He told me about this protest and I said, “Sorry, I didn’t get the memo.”
If I had heard earlier I may have asked for the day off, but it’s too late now.