Day 4 at the Fair

It was a very long day for me. I opened the booth at around 10:45 am and stayed until we closed the booth a little after 9:00 pm. I had several kind people join me to work the booth during the afternoon--Dawn, Robert, and Erin. Kate worked the evening shift, as always, and Dawn hung around a bit for the evening shift, too. (We gave Tony a much deserved day off today!)

Today was, by and large, a very good day. We collected 15 more FIRED cards. Our running total is now up to 56! We also received quite a few more e-mail addresses to add to the mailing list, which I should do soon.

I worked the booth by myself in the morning, and the first encounter was a positive one. A woman who works at another booth (the Kid's Place) took some Equality Ohio materials and filled out a FIRED card. Another visitor came with his wife from the Covenant Church and asked for information. I am pretty sure that is a conservative church so I was on guard a bit, but it was a civil encounter. The man and his wife were polite and kind to me. At one point I told him that some members of our organizations are Christians who believe that god loves everybody, and he agreed with me on that. Overall, I would say it was a positive encounter.

As in the past days, we have had many young people approach our booth. Here are some of the things the young people said:

"What are you all about?"

"Gay-Straight Alliance . . . Does that mean you are for gay marriage?" (After we explained that we are for equal rights for everybody and also told him about the inequities regarding employment/housing/public accommodations, he thanked us.

"What can we do to help? Can we volunteer?"

Seeing so many young people who think for themselves and care about these inequities gives me a great deal of hope for the future.

We also had a visit from Dylan McCament, a staff reporter for the Mount Vernon News. I hope we get some additional publicity, and if so, I hope that he consults us for more information. He took some of our literature, but did not stay long.

Here were some interesting responses to when we asked people if they knew it is still legal to fire someone for being GLBT:

"I'm sorry I am laughing, but I can't believe that!"

"Shut up! Of course I'll sign the card."

"Oh yeah. That's just ridiculous. It's 2008!"

And here some additional comments we heard throughout the day:

"Well, cool!"

"Our friend from Loudonville is gay and Brazilian, and he just could not take it here anymore in Ohio because he found it so oppressive. He now lives in Texas."

"What are you all about? My brother-in-law is a cross dresser. . . . I'm doing this for him. . . . He's just gorgeous."

"What is all this? Are you all homosexuals? . . . I didn't know that [you can be refused service in a restaurant] 'cause we go to the mall all the time. . . . Well there's that one guy who says he doesn't mind 'those kind of people'."

"I love gay people. My dad's gay."

"Can I have some materials? We're about 200 years behind on this stuff."

"Thank you! You two have a really nice day at the fair."

"That's interesting!"

And my favorite, which really made my day better:
"You're the ones really doing god's work. Thank you for fighting the fight."

I'd be lying if I said every response today was positive, however; we did encounter one group of three unkind women. Upon looking at the Delaware Gay-Straight Christian Alliance poster (the logo consists of an upside-down pink triangle juxtaposed with a cross and a rainbow), one lady said: "that makes us all look bad" (referring to 'us' as Christians, I presume). Then another lady looked us in the eyes and said, "Terrible. It's a sin and it's wrong." We said nothing as they walked away. Although words can sting, I know in my heart that we are doing what is right and the problem lies within them, not us. It is un-Christlike to say unkind things like that to people. I find it hypocritical.

We had many visitors today that were friends of those of us working the booth. I can't express how wonderful it is to have allies, both straight and gay, visit us during our long shifts.

As each day continues, I feel more and more certain that the work we are doing is incredibly important and making a big difference. We have had so many wonderful experiences, and I am grateful to be a small part of this effort. Until tomorrow!