Like most Americans, especially those of the gay persuasion, my husband David and I were debilitated by the shock and awfulness of the 2004 presidential election. But we weren’t paralyzed for long: the day after Bush was again crowned President, we sat down with my sister-in-law and hatched a plan to fight off the radical Right’s latest charge against the gay community.
On the ballot in Wisconsin this November is a constitutional amendment that would ban marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships for the state’s same-sex couples.
Neither David nor I is a shrinking violet, especially when it comes to being gay. (My bright orange VW bug is plastered with bumper stickers, my favorite being “I’m even gayer than I look.”) In our minds, militant action was needed: protests, walk-outs, sit-ins, and other events that would get the public to take notice. Prudence eventually prevailed and convinced us to adopt a less antagonistic approach. This is when we decided to start up BlockOut Wisconsin (www.blockoutwisconsin.com).
In the first few months, the three of us worked our butts off to get the organization off the ground. We created and promoted our website, which serves as an informational hub for anyone interested in helping to defeat Wisconsin’s proposed constitutional amendment. Visitors to the site could download materials to canvas their neighborhoods, print out brochures to share with family, friends, and coworkers, or just hook up with others looking to vent their pent-up anger, fear, or frustration.
This work paid off almost immediately: scores of people found our site and registered as members. Just as quickly, however, we discovered that signing up was as far as most people were willing to go. Convincing them to take action required an inordinate amount of handholding on our part—and even then, most didn’t move beyond signing on the dotted line.
The spectre of apathy among gay citizens is not restricted to Wisconsin. Someone we’ve worked with in another U.S. city received similarly depressing replies from most of the people he recruited. I recently discussed this issue with Roger Winters, über-activist and president of the Legal Marriage Alliance of Washington state, who agreed that most gay people in his state are inactive—but added that this is different from apathetic. Many are passionate about the marriage contest in Washington, whose high court just ruled against same-sex marriage; the reason they’re not out there brandishing pitchforks is because they haven’t been properly engaged—i.e., given something to do—by local, state, and national organizations.
That may be true, but before you can do that you have to get people involved in your organization and its issues. People who come to our website are welcomed by a list of activities (of varying degrees of difficulty) that they can become involved in to make an immediate difference. As bleak as things seem, I hold out hope that things are turning around. In late August, David and I canvassed our city along with more than 200 other people—a lot better than the twenty or thirty we’re used to seeing at such events. By the time you receive this, the November election will be only weeks or days away. How Wisconsin votes on this issue may well be an indicator of how prepared the nation is to choose a more enlightened future.
Bryan Ochalla is the co-founder of BlockOut Wisconsin.
