It's time to do freedom rides in America again

I was on the phone with my sister last night and I said, "Gay people should confront bigotry all across the US. Starting with California which was the FIRST state to define marriage as a man and a woman and continuing all through the south."

She said it sounded good but that a busload of GLBT people would probably get killed in the south.

I said, "yes, violence in the south against black people was exactly what made most AMericans so disgusted that they got on the equal rights bandwagon whether they were bigots or not."

I do think if we as gay people don't want to be demonized from now til hell freezes we need to go confront people everywhere is every state where they would take our jobs, harass us on the street and take our rights.

While there is corporal risk, remember America SYMPATHIZED with Matthew Sheppard...not the homophobes that killed him.

We need the bully pulpit and we will only get it with bold measures and courageous acts. There are plenty of hetero people that would join us just as there were many people that were NOT African American joining their equal rights cause and just as there were many men that joined the women's movement.


It's time to once again put confront the rural person where they live. On their turf...let them see how violent their god fearing neighbors are.

If you say I am crazy to propose the risk..then let me ask you this...DO YOU REALLY WANT TO LIVE IN A BIGOTED NATION?

It could actually work out better than the original Freedom Rides, since, barring someone exhibiting stereotypes, you can't just look at a person and say, "Yup, he's gay." The original groups were made up of blacks and whites, who are easily distinguishable, so the bigots could focus on the blacks (though they didn't spare the whites any pain either).

With a Freedom Ride of GLBT and straights, the bigots will have no idea which ones are which--precisely the impact we want. We should have marches through the most RW areas, challenging the people to point out who's gay and who's straight. (This, of course, would mean that we'd have to forbid the kind of stereotypical gay-pride parade stuff that goads RWers so much.) Sure, it'd be fun to piss them off, but our focus is on the outsiders looking in: they'll simply see a long march of completely normal people in shirts and jeans walking down the street.

If the RWers attack, how will they defend themselves to the public? Guys weren't making out with other guys; there were no lesbian orgies on floats going down the street. It's just American citizens walking down a public street in support of their fellow citizens. What do the RWers have against that?

Again, excellent idea!

Because I remember singing that as a child, and really believing it. And the whole point of the song is that Jesus loves everyone. How apropos that would be.

I would be more than happy to be on that bus!

:kick:

some people think choosing a "Southern Governor" is going to make the freepers re-twist their minds back to reality.

It's going to take much more craftiness than that.

:kick: