GetEqual has been doing a lot of direct action protesting lately and I commend them for it as I think it is important. However, I struggle to decide if they are really making their point. There actions do get national attention within the LGBT community, but I have not seen a lot of national attention to these protests. Yes, they get local coverage, which when you are trying to influence a politician is theoretically enough. However, we all know that most politicians don’t really listen to their constituents, they think nationally and what is best for the party nationally.
Also, all of their protests have been 5-10 people who go perform some sort of impeding protest and get arrested. So 5-10 people go sit in an office until they get arrested, or 5-10 people hold a sign across the lanes of the Las Vegas strip until they get arrested, or 5-10 people sit in the capital rotunda until they get arrested. I am not saying these are bad actions, but why only 5-10 people. Would it be more effective if they did it with 50-100 people?
I understand the need to keep their actions quiet beforehand to prevent the police from being ready for them, but I really think they need to find a way to get more people involved.
August 7th, 2010 at 1:55 am
I/we could not agree with you more and we are working to figure out the best avenues of engagement to make that happen. Thanks for the post and if you have suggestions, don’t hesitate to email them to info@getequal.org
August 8th, 2010 at 11:20 am
GE is not getting any participation because most people understand these publicity stunts are ineffective. In fact, they haven’t been used with any positive results (by any group) during the last 20 years. (If you know of any, please share them).
The world has changed dramatically in the last 25 years and we can’t continue to ignore that fact. Direct action, civil disobedience and protest are communication tools. They were very effective in the 60s and even when used by Act Up in the 80s and 90s. But, communication has changed dramatically and we must respect and embrace that reality.
“Chris” points out in his Post that none of GE’s stunts got very much “attention,” especially outside the LGBT media. Attention is the primary goal of direct action and protest. But, the media and potential participants see these activities mostly as an annoyance and ineffective. So, as Chris points out and Robin acknowledges nobody shows up – participants or the mainstream media.
I am not suggesting direct action should be abandoned, but I am suggesting it must evolve to be effective. It is a great tool when used to respond to events and social networks enable that with very little expense. But, fabricating “stunts” that simply seek to “embarrass” make very little sense. Robin once suggested that if embarrassing a politician didn’t work the first time, they would return and “embarrass them more.” That’s the kind of thinking that hurts our movement.
Other calls for “mass demonstration” lack the mass – which only defeats the purpose. People have taken their voices off the streets and put them in blogs, YouTube videos, FaceBook pages and tweets. FriendFactor.com understands that reality and is seeking to use new communication methods to our advantage. We can be seen and heard without heckling, bringing markers to a committee Chairman or stopping traffic in Vegas. 10-year old Will Philips (from Oklahoma of all places) refused to pledge allegiance to the flag until LGBT person were treated equally. Nearly 40% of adult Americans saw that powerful and inspiring story. That single event is worth a million GetEQUAL organizations. 25 years ago it would have gone unnoticed. Stories inspire people, stunts irritate them.
In order to win we must change minds. The one “direct action” that accomplishes that is talking to friends, co-workers, neighbors and even strangers. Talking, not yelling. Enlightening, not embarrassing. Enrolling, not enraging. It is 2010 and we can’t even say, with much reliability, how many of our fellow citizens support our full equality. My polling and research indicates that two-thirds of America will support our equality and stand with us, but we do very little in that regard. The way to accomplish that is by asking, not demanding. If we had a threat, perhaps demanding would be useful, but we do not. People will support us if asked.
Accountability requires that we have open, honest and objective conversations about every tactic, method and strategy used in our movement. Even if people want to believe that some tools of the past are still effective, we can’t deny the fact that they haven’t been useful during the last 20 years. They do not garner support or participation. I have activist friends who were very troubled admitting that direct action and protest are no longer effective because they don’t want to devalue their own efforts. They were effective decades ago, but today there is no evidence that they serve us well. We should acknowledge that fact and either change them to take advantage of our new world – or retire them.
Our biggest problem is a lack of participation. Despite increasing anger and frustration, only 10% of our “out” community donates or participates in any manner. We need to preserve the important efforts of that 10% while we inspire the other 90% with an effective strategy that will ignite a real, sustainable movement. We can accomplish that if we embrace accountability and figure out how to win, not just fight.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:49 am
I do agree with Andrew to a point, that direct action protests by a bunch of activists is no longer as effective today as it was 50 years ago. However, I do not agree that it is useless.
I will agree that it could be more effective by using tactics like 10 year old Will Phillips. Obviously we cannot use a bunch of 10 year olds, but maybe we need to do a better job of getting the stories of the protesters out. Having a protester who lost their job for being gay staging a sit in in Pelosi’s office would probably be more effective, as long as their story is communicated. 10 anonymous protesters are probably not as effective.
I also agree that we need to talk to our friends and family. But talking to your friends and family should not be the only approach. I do believe we need to approach these issues from every angle. Lobbying, talking to family and friends, getting into the media, judicial system, and yes even direction action need to be used.
Finally, you complain about lack of participation. I believe this is more because of an anti-establishment mentality within the community than it is that 90% of the community just does not care. I believe a lot of the community has looked at things and wondered what the HRC has done for us. What a lot of these long standing organizations have done.
In my opinion the HRC seems to be more of the social elite more worried about maintaining and getting face time with the politicians than actually getting anything done. But then I guess that is lobbying for you at it’s finest. With the current sentiment in the community that is not going to win you support and donations.
We need an organization that a larger portion of the community can get behind and I do not think we have that organization today. Is the HRC it? Definitely not. Is GetEqual that organization? Probably not in it’s present form. We need to get that organization or that multitude of organizations that everyone in the community feels they are represented by one of them.
August 9th, 2010 at 12:43 am
hey chris,
i like your observations about HRC and GE and lack of participation, by so many in the community. can you tell me more about yourself? i read some of your first 2007 posts, about coming and all, and got the sense you’re 20something.
continue to speak out about what you don’t like and give voice to other complaints you want to lodge on the gay blogosphere.
glad i stumbled across your blog. keep up the writing.