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.