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!

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!