Day 5 at the Fair (Thursday 30 July 2009)

Here is a note from Kim and Tony who worked in the morning together:

at noon: An Asian woman, walking hand-in-hand with her aging mother, told use about her gay cousin who had tried more than once to commit suicide. She was amazed by the suicide statistics on the signs. They are from Holmes County and said they know about being different. Then the mother stepped up and said haltingly, "I have Alzheimer's and people look at me sometimes they stare and that hurts." We had a good talk about how it feels to be different and how it hurts when others don't accept us.

I joined Kim and Tony at 3:00 and was soon joined by Larry. Here are the notes from our interactions during the afternoon:

3:15 pm A lady passed by, read one of Larry's signs, and had a strange, disapproving look on her face. Tony said, "It's terrible how hate can hurt people" and she just looked disapprovingly and walked away.

3:25 pm A man named Ted Ryan from the booth across the way ("The Wordless Book") came by and introduced himself to Tony. He said "Jesus forgives sin but have to stop sinning." He and Tony talked for a bit and the man eventually wandered back to his tent.

3:52 pm Three teenage girls stared at us from maybe 15 feet away. One said "that's disgusting" and then they laughed at us.

During a lull in the four o-clock hour, Larry copied down a list of things that had been said to him by some cantankerous religious men on Tuesday (this was when I had heard too much, lost it and left the booth just to come back 40 minutes later to hear it STILL going on):

1. "Sex between a man and woman is for procreation only."
2. "Sex between 2 men or 2 women is an act of lust."
3. "Allowing marriage between 2 men or 2 women will lead to individuals marrying animals."
4. "Gays choose their orientation and need to pray for change. If change does not happen, a family member must take charge and prevent the individual from committing sexual sin."
5. When asked what he would do if his child was to gay, he said, "First of all, a child of his would not be born gay, as God would not permit such--however if that would happen, prayer would change him."
6. "All men and women can have children--and if that does not happen, the would-be parents are not praying correctly."
7. "Children who are born unwanted will be taken care of by God just like the birds of the field. I take care of my own family [and not other people's children] and that is what counts."
8. "Abomination applies only to gay people--especially those involved in sexual relations."
9. "Some Bibles are wrong. My bible is right. God wrote it."
10. While this confrontation was going on, a lady came by and told these men to get away from our booth as we are "vile people."
11. We also received some sneers and looks of objection!

Thank goodness we did not encounter this same level of hate on Thursday, but we did have some interesting discussions with more religious folk (this time, more civil and polite conversations) later in the evening. I was very happy to work with Kate when she arrived for the evening shift (we have not seen much of each other this week!). Larry worked with us as well and even treated us to smoothies near the end of the night, which were a treat! Here are some notes from the rest of the evening:

4:30 pm A young man (perhaps in his 20s?)--an adamant agnostic (my kind of person)--stopped by, asked us about our organization, signed up for the email list, and took literature. We had a fairly long conversation with him. What an interesting, articulate, and smart fellow! He asked specifically about the "Bible thumpers" and we told him about some of our experiences. He also said, "Four years ago I would have been one of them." It is nice to know that people have the ability to change and become more open-minded as they experience life.

4:45 pm A lesbian stopped by and said she had seen our fliers for the Pride event and the April Gay Jeopardy Game in Kroger (nice to know our publicity system works!). She took some literature and signed up for our email list. She said her friends in Columbus couldn't believe that there was a GSA in Knox County.

4:56 pm A group of young kids (12-14) walked past, and a boy read the sign, "Knox County Gay-Straight Alliance . . . I'm very straight. I am not gay."

5:18 pm A lady stopped by with her kids, took some literature, and signed up for our email list.

5:20 pm The Mullendores stopped by :). We got to meet their son, Seth.

5:25 pm Ted Ryan (the man from the Wordless Book booth) came back to our booth, and a 25-minute conversation ensued. He said he didn't want to argue but took issue with Larry's sign that read, "We are all children of God." He showed Larry a verse in the Bible that he construed to mean that you are not a child of god unless you are Christian and accept Jesus as your savior. He did eventually admit that God created us all and said, "but we aren't living the way we should." Larry agreed that none of us are perfect.

Then he told us a story about how he and his religious friends wet to protest a strip club in Mansfield, and how the strip club people kept quoting "Judge not lest ye be judged." He did not appreciate their quoting that passage and dismissed them. (But why were the passages that Mr. Ryan quoted somehow more valid than that one? I did not ask him that, but I wish I had.)

Kate asked him where he was from, what church he was from, and what the Wordless book was all about, to which he said it was an enterprise of "child evangelism." (And people talk about how WE want to convert CHILDREN!) Kate engaged him in another conversation on how he felt about Jewish people. He said, "I feel for them the same way I feel about you--I want to share my message about Jesus with you."

Throughout the entire conversation, he was very calm and polite, never mean, but steadfast in his convictions. I give him credit for remaining polite.

He did go on to talk about how he believed homosexuality is a sin and that people are born as sinners, attracted to sin. He gave examples of people raping people, beating their children, all because they are attracted to sin. That was when I realized that our fundamental disagreement is simple: He believes that being gay is a sin on par with other things I certainly detest--rape, murder, violence--and I believe that being gay is not a sin. I wish I had realized our simple disagreement then and said something. We could have agreed to disagree at that point and been done with it.

Larry shared his story with this man about being born gay, and Kate shared her feelings about being gay, too. I said to him that no one in their right mind would choose this.

6:23 pm Another person passing by asked us the now classic question, "Are you for gays?" Kate: "Yes." Smiling, the lady replied, "Just wanted to know, passed by earlier this week and we weren't sure." Kate: "Thanks for asking."

Soon after, teenage boys made the rock concert devil horns and gave us a whoop. Good stuff!

6:42 pm A man with his son said he gets our newsletter and is supportive. He also commented on Larry's signs, and told us a story about when he was in the military: There was a gay man named Ray who everyone called "Gay Ray" and nobody messed with him. So nice to have straight allies stop by and share their stories with us, too!

7:00 pm The Wargas stopped by the booth. Great to have such great friends! :)

7:08 A young lady stopped by and asked, "Do you have the blue and yellow [HRC] stickers? I had one on my old care but need one for my new one." She did take an EO bumper sticker, but we did not have any HRC ones.

A little later, A man asked if Dawn was here, and then told us that he was setting up a policy on sexual orientation at his church and took literature. What a nice, supportive guy!

7:35 pm My friend, the owner of Action Waste, stopped by and enthusiastically introduced me to his son, Jared. Nice folks! I highly recommend Action Waste. This company was the one who helped sponsor the Mount Vernon street clean-up project that the GSA participated in a few months ago.

7:38 pm A mysterious kid rushed by the booth and said to Larry, "I was told by the carnies to give you this" and gave hima poster of a naked woman on a beach. Hmmm. . .

7:51 pm Larry is so popular! I met more of his friends, Art and Shelly, from Faith Lutheran.

7:58 pm The mom & a friend of a friend of the GSA stopped by and gave us a donation.

8:25 pm A teenage girl named Brooklyn came by and said she had a few questions for us. She asked us what we belived regarding the Bible and Jesus, to which Kate replied: "I'm not a Christian." Larry told his story about it not being a choice. She said that the Bible shows that God says marriage is between a man and a woman. She asked, "Do you believe that God is all powerful? Then you should believe that be can change you." The conversation moved on to a discussion of biblical passages. When she was done, she politely shook Larry's hand, and she did take a Soulforce book. Hopefully she will read it.

As it got really close to closing time, two ladies we met last year stopped by to show their support, as did another small group of people. What a nice way to end the night!

I did not work Friday (today, the day I am posting this), but I heard that Larry and Kate got lambasted by two separate groups of teens. Wish I could have been there to help, but I tend to clam up anyhow and don't think of what to say until after they all leave. So stay posted, I am sure Kate will type her latest experiences soon.

Thank you for reading our blog entries, and thanks for your support.

Day 4 at the Fair - Wednesday, July 29, 2009

11:15am A young woman stopped by and chatted for a while. She said she supports open mindedness and acceptance.

1:30pm A lady stopped by and said, "I got nothing against nobody. My granddaughter is..."
Tony: "a lesbian?"
Lady: "Yes."
Later she said she was bisexual. "My sister doesn't like it at all. My family disowned me."

4:25pm A lady from the home and garden booth stopped by and said, "It's great to see you here again."

4:30pm Tony made a sign for the empty booth across the aisle from us. It reads "Knox Co. Procrastinators (see you next week)"

5:44pm A teenage boy walked up to us and said, "I have a question - are you for them or against them?"
Robert: "What do you mean by 'them?'"
Boy: "Gays"
Robert: "We support gay people in Knox County."
Boy: "Well, I think you're wrong."
Then he left and came back perhaps a minute later. This time he stayed to have a conversation. Robert took the whole "someone you know is gay and afraid to tell you" approach and this boy just said, "No they aren't. And if they told me that I wouldn't love them." Then after explaining that we don't think there is anything wrong with gay people he just shook his head and said, "the fall of this country..." After another brief interation he said, "Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree" and walked away.

Just then a group of 3 young men walked by and one said, "I'm a supporter!" and waved to us. It was nice to hear that after the conversation with that other boy.

7:35pm Three young women from Fredericktown, two in high school, stopped by to show their support and take literature.

7:37pm Four young people, two of each gender, picked up a bunch of literature from us.

8:02pm Nicole and Alexis stopped by to say "hi." Always nice to see friends.

8:06pm Chris, who lives with his partner in Galion, was really surprised to see an organization in Knox County and may come to our picnic in August.

8:14pm Overheard a kid on the phone saying "Hey, should I sign you up for the gay-straight alliance?" We still deal with the occasional immature teenager. It's amazing to me where different sets of teens stand on these issues. Some are very actively supporters, some are very actively in opposition (generally religious) and many seem to be stuck in that "I'm giggling because I just heard someone say 'gay'" phase.

8:37pm A supportive person from the Main Place booth stopped by to say hello.

8:44pm A woman from Columbus in her 20's with a little boy stopped by. "He just said to me, 'Mom, you're a lesbian.' and I said, 'I know, isn't it cool.'" She was very excited to see us at the fair.

8:49pm A kid passing by the booth with three others said, "These guys are awesome!"

Overall it was another successful day at the fair. All the interactions were civil and pleasant, which is all I can hope for.

Day 3 at the Fair, part II (Tuesday, July 28, 2009)

3:35pm Two people from the career center, about to graduate as RNs, one man and one woman stopped by and thanked us for being here. They also picked up information.

3:40pm Another visitor - A gay man with his gay roommate. He said he came last year and our booth was one of the reasons he came to the fair again this year.

3:47pm A boy stopped by and took some candy. He then asked his friends, "Hey, do you think this is gay candy?" Larry responded, "Yes, it is!"

3:47pm A lady stopped by, made a generous donation and thanked us for our work.

3:55pm A man walked past the booth saying, "it's all sin..." Victoria's notes say he went on and on being unkind.

At this point the three interactions with the gentlemen from the baptist temple (as explained by Victoria in the last post) took place. After the 8 year old boy, who was sent by the people in the baptist temple's booth showed us the bible verses and explained to our members that we were sinners, left a young teenage girl (12 - 14) came up to Robert sitting at the booth and said, "You just told my brother it's ok to be gay. It's not it's a sin and it's in the bible." Robert actually didn't say that to the boy, he had only just arrived.

6:27pm Sasha from the Freedom Center (which has a booth across the way) stopped by and said, "I just wanted to stop by and say I'm glad you all are here. You're turning a lot of heads and that's a good thing."

6:37pm Ruth came by and talked about how good this is, and told Robert about her gay grandson, who is getting his PhD, and how close he is to their son, who is his gay uncle.

6:43pm Tom stopped by, he goes to the First Congregational church where we hold our meetings. Always nice to see a friendly face.

7:02pm A kid came by and said that people are created to be straight and Robert launched into his response: "You have a friend or family member who is gay and they are afraid to tell you because they are afraid you won't love them anymore." The boy said, "Well, I'd love them anyway." He then asked us if we are gay and when four of us said "yes" he just said, "you're kidding me!"

7:14pm A person stopped by and wanted one of our flags, we gave him some literature.

8:16pm A man named David came by to say that we're using a lot of hate language in our signage in talking about bigots. Robert thanked him for pointing that out and he replied, "maybe I've said too much."

8:18pm A woman with a little boy came by to pick up some literature and took the Soul Force pamphlet.

8:21pm A woman pushing another in a wheelchair said, "We're married. We want to get involved in this." They have a 17 year old son.

8:40pm Monica, Chris and Sophie came to the booth with a couple and their two kids from their church in Centerburg.

Day 3 at the Fair (Tuesday, July 28, 2009), part I

Rissah, a local high school student, met me at 11 to work the first few hours at the fair booth this morning. Tony and Larry joined us a bit later. It was a pretty slow morning, but was had a bit more activity throughout the afternoon. I continue to be pleased with how many wonderfully supportive comments we are receiving. Here are some of the interactions we recorded in the notebook:

11:45 am A sweet man from the Main Place booth stopped by, stayed for quite awhile, read our signs, asked about buying a t-shirt, and said, “I have friends who are that way, and I don’t care. People try to tell me not to hang out with them, but they are my friends. I can choose my friends and they can choose theirs!”

12:07 pm The Nordmoes stopped by. :) Always good to see friends!

2:05 pm Three teenagers stopped by who were generally supportive. It was a good conversation overall—topics ranged from the DGSCA’s involvement has with local churches, to unfair laws and stories of a man they knew who was denied a job just because he is openly gay. I’m encouraged by the open-mindedness of our youth!

2:20 pm Two woman walked by, said “makes sense!” This came from folks who are ostensibly conservative who told us about how they are displeased that bible stories and the pledge of allegiance have been taken out of the schools. As the left, they said “good luck!” and wished us well.

2:45 pm A lady said to a man while passing by the booth: “gay . . . straight . . . gay-straight alliance . . .” as if she were reading something in a foreign language.

3:00 pm A young man from Journey Church (who moved here this past year from Memphis, Tennessee) stopped by and gave us a donation. We chatted with him for a bit. He was wearing a green t-shirt that read, “No other god but you—Journey UBS ’09.” I was really impressed by this young man. Larry asked about his church, and he said, “They are pretty accepting. They are really trying to reach out to people who typically are not inclined to go to church at all.” This sort of interaction gives me so much encouragement. First, it is nice to know that there are churches in the area that are welcoming to all people, including GLBT people. Second, it is nice to know that many of our young people, especially those whose faith is important to them, recognize that their god loves all people and that love is much better than hate.

So the day was going REALLY WELL until around 4:00. In the four o'clock hour, we encountered our first truly awful interactions involving three different sets of people. (I missed the second one entirely because I left the booth when the first group of men said something about gay relationships being less valid and stable than straight relationships. Not sure why that is what made me lose it, but that was when I had had enough. I just could not sit there and take any more of it. Thank goodness for Tony and Larry's patience with these difficult conversations. I feel like maybe I am not cut out for this kind of work after all.) So after 30 minutes or so, and I felt I had calmed myself down I walked back to the booth slowly only to find a man and a little boy going at it with Tony. It was more of the same hateful talk--"being gay is an abomination," "you aren't a real Christian," "it is there in the Bible," "you are corrupting our youth," etc. It turns out the Baptists (from the church on Yauger Road) had sent the kid up to the booth first to start preaching at us, and then the grown-up man came. Who would stoop so low as to use a kid as a pawn to spew hate? This latest interaction I happened upon put me over the edge again, unfortunately just as Robert arrived. Some happy welcome for him to the booth (it was his first shift!). Robert was sweet and comforted me, and soon after, Kate arrived. Once the evening shift was in place, Tony, Larry, and I took off for the evening.

There was one final interaction worth mentioning that happened right before I left. A girl came up to Robert and asked, "Did you tell my brother it is okay to be gay? Because it is not. It is against our religion." Robert asked her, "Well, what if your brother turned out to be gay? Wouldn't you want him to know he is okay?" I guess not all of our youth are as progressive as I would like to think they are.

I heard that Robert took copious notes the rest of the evening so I will try to type those up while I work at the booth today and post them tomorrow. Thanks to all of our allies who have stopped by our booth and shown support. It makes a big difference!

The second day at the fair (Monday, July 27, 2009)

I got to the booth at 11:00. Tony was already almost done setting up and said he already had a positive interaction this morning. That is great! It is always good to start the day off with a positive experience. Scott joined us shortly after I arrived.

In our first hour we two notable interactions:

11:40 am A woman we met last year at the fair came by, said hello and that she still had some of the literature she picked up last year at the fair. She said, “My lesbian friends are in town and they have a son who has been having a bit trouble lately. . . . His friends ask him if he is going to homosexual but he says, ‘it doen’t matter; my parents will love me no matter who I love.”

11:44 am A man came by and took some literature (one of each), and told Scott he was a youth pastor.

And we had more experiences after noon:

12:30 pm A young man (junior high or high school age) stopped by, read our signs after approaching the table, and asked, “what is this all about?” Tony explained and we offered him literature. He took Tony’s “God vs. Gays” booklet and a piece of candy and thanked us.

2:20 pm A lady passed by, smiled and nodded in approval.

3:12 pm Mary Dye stopped by and asked how the vigil went last week. I told her it was a success, and she seemed pleased.

3:25 pm A lady with her daughter and grandson (I assume) read our signs and said, “I agree completely. We need more acceptance especially right now.” Good stuff!

3:45 pm A blonde boy threw a stink bomb into our tent. I tried to pick it up and throw it in the trash before it went off, but only got as far as the middle of the path in front of us. It went off, and I gave up, but Larry picked up the trash leftover from it. I wish I could say that was the only stink bomb we got, but I would be lying if I did.

3:51 pm A young women working as staff at the fair said, “This is the first time I’ve seen something in support . . . I’m from Georgia. I’m supportive. I am not gay, but I’m bisexual and I’m supportive.”

4:10 pm The Riskos stopped by. It is always nice to see friends! :)

4:35 pm Two young people came by and asked what our booth was about. Tony explained. The firl seemed appreciative, gave a donation, and took some literature.

My shift ended at 5:00 so I went home. Kate recorded the events from the rest of the evening:

5:33 pm Three girls stood at the Wordless Book booth across from us and just stared at our booth, reading the signs.

5:35 pm A lady walked by, saw the booth, and said, “Oh—Awesome. That is so cool!”

7:23 pm Two young men in their 30s stopped by and were very excited to see us. One of the men said he had just come out to everyone. “I didn’t know we had one of there I town!” They took a bunch of literature and thanked us as they left.

7:43 pm Passerby: “It’s okay for me to disagree with all this, right?”
Tony: “Sure, but do you agree that God loves all people?”
“Yeah, but I just feel that it’s a choice. How can you say you are godly when it says it’s wrong right there in the bible? . . . I had these two gay friends and if anyone said anything bad about them I would have bashed them. . . . What about Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve? . . . You guys are cool so, bye!”

8:20 pm A group of four teenagers, one of whom was pregnant, stopped by to take some literature. One said, “I’m going to show this to my mom! She has issues.” Another: “My mom doesn’t have issue ‘cause she loves Kelly.” Kelly: “Yeah, I just try to be lovable.”

I also heard another story of a man coming by the booth who refused to believe that being gay is not a choice. Larry asked him, “When did you choose to be heterosexual?” to which the man replied, “Well, I was just born that way.” Larry and the others tried to explain to him it is the same for gay people, that we are just born this way, but the man would not concede. He asked if we believed in the power of prayer, and if so, why wouldn’t we pray for God to change us. Eventually he asked, “So you actually think it is okay to be gay?” (Well, yes.) The conversation remained civil, which is good, but it ended with the man saying, “Well I am going to pray for you.” Larry responded, “Well I am going to pray for you, too.” (I can think of worse ways for a conversation to end.)

Experiences from the First Day at the Fair (Sunday, July 26, 2009)

[NB I know this is a little late in getting posted, but fair week has been hectic so far. I have only been able to type our experiences from the first day because I brought my computer with me yesterday to the fair!]

We had a great opening day of the fair. Kate and I opened the booth. Joan worked for several hours, and Larry, Tony, Martha, and Gwen worked the afternoon and evening shifts. It is wonderful to have so many willing volunteers this year. It makes all the difference—thanks to everyone who is volunteering this week. Here is a sample of comments and interactions we recorded:

11:16 am Lady passing by: “Gay-Straight . . . huh . . . what does that mean?” Kate explains. Lady: “Oh, okay, I was just curious what it meant.”

12:11 pm A lady asked what our booth was all about, and Kate explained. The lady wanted to know if this was some sort of movement to make gay people straight. We explained that GSAs are not designed to convert anyone one way or another, but rather that the purpose of most GSAs are for both gay and straight people to support one another.

12:15 pm A lady and a young boy stopped by, took literature from Equality Ohio about the laws in Ohio that exclude sexual orientation and gender identity. The woman was surprised that it is still legal to fire someone because they are gay.

12:30 pm A young boy (12–14 years old) and his mom and grandma were walking past the booth. He started to walk over to us to get a piece a candy. The mom tried to hold him back. He just pushed her hand away and came over here anyway. He took a piece, said thank you, and then left. The mom just kept walking. I think much of the resistance we encounter these days come from older generations. I think the younger generations are getting it!

1:00 pm A young family stopped by and took literature and candy. They were very pleasant and said thanks.

3:10 pm A high school student came up to our booth and said, “Okay, I don’t want to read anything right now, but I have a question. Are you for or against gays?” (the standby question we heard so much last year). Tony replied, “We believe in equal treatment for all people.” Then she gave us two thumbs up and seemed pleased.

Martha’s report for the afternoon shift:

3:55 pm We were talking with each other, minding our own business, when we heard a pop from behind the tent. Then we smelled something. Upon investigation, we found someone had set off a “fart bomb” behind the tent.

5:20 pm A woman with a Red Cross shirt stopped by. A friend of hers has a son who graduated from high school a few years ago. She believes the son is gay but the mother is not supportive and the son is closeted. She took some lieterature. (Note—she looked at our booth for a long time before coming over, and we all assumed from her facial expression that disapproved of us. But we were wrong!)

5:45 pm A man, two women, and child stopped by. They were supportive. One woman’s uncle had married but struggled with his sexuality his whole life. The man’s boss and office manager are partners and he has no problem with it. “Let them marry—let them be as miserable as the rest of us!”

7:25 pm Three teenagers stopped by. They are supportive and took bumper stickers for their cars.

7:30 pm A woman stopped by and asked if Dawn was here. She wanted to say hi. She put a few dollars in our bowl. We asked her how she was enjoying the fair and she replied, “you know, it is what it is.” :)

7:40 pm Dale, the balloon man from the Wordless Book booth across the way, stopped by to talk. He asked how we explained Romans and Tony launched into his explanation of Romans and they continued to have a pleasant civil conversation. When he said he thought being gay was a choice and/or that it was the result of poor upbringing, Larry shared his story. When we asked Dale when he chose to be heterosexual, he said he didn’t, he was born that way. We nodded and said yes!—that’s the way it works for gay people too. He took a Soulforce pamphlet, a God vs. Gays pamphlet, and The Only Question That Matters pamphlet, and he said he’d ask his pastor about it. He also asked why God didn’t make Adam & Steve instead of Adam & Eve. Tony responded that it’s likely that Adam & Eve has all aspects of all people built in their DNA—including people of all sexual orientations.

8:05 pm A woman passed by, waved and said hi.” :)