A Day Without a Gay

Today, December 10, has been named "A Day Without a Gay" by many in the queer community. Queer people, and their allies, have been encouraged to go on strike by "calling in gay" - meaning not go to work or school and not contribute anything to the economy for the day. Instead, we should volunteer our time to helping others and our surrounding communities. The goal of this is to raise awareness about the LGBT workers, business owners, consumers, and taxpayers who contribute over $700 billion to the U.S. economy each year, yet are still treated as second class citizens when it comes to legal rights and protections. Being absent from our jobs/classes help to show what would be lost if were not here to begin with, and volunteering for the day helps to show the message is about love, not discrimination.

This day of activism was inspired by the film A Day Without A Mexican and the nationwide strike in 2006 called "A Day Without Immigrants" which were attempts by Latinos and other immigrants for equal rights and employment non-discrimination. December 10 was selected because it is International Human Rights Day.

Word was spread about this day largely via the internet. The official facebook group about it has over 9,000 members, and there have been countless e-mails about it. The official website is www.daywithoutagay.org, and from there you can search or post volunteer opportunities for various geographical areas.

For full disclosure, I must admit that I am at work today. Unfortunately, I heard about "calling in gay" after I had scheduled a couple important meetings for the day. Working on a college campus makes it difficult to rearrange my schedule during the last week of classes. Though, the objective for the day is to raise awareness about the issues presented above, so hopefully this blogpost will do so. And there's always next year...