In this video, the good people at Logo TV’s NewNowNext.com try to explore what would happen if, tomorrow, everyone who was gay didn’t show up for work. That’s what some people are planning, in a nationwide protest against the passing of Proposition 8. Their video is a little extreme, as they work at a queer network and of course if every LGBT person there called in gay, nobody would go to work (including, not to be judgy, the cute male protagonist of the video, if you ask us). What would happen at a non-gay company? Well, we won’t know until tomorrow.
Your Intel editors Jessica and Chris will not be calling in gay, even though we both are (one technically, the other honorarily). It’s partially because we work at an extremely ‘mo-friendly company and if everyone here called in gay the magazine would basically shut down. It’s also partially because we feel that us not showing up to work here in New York City has little to do with convincing the non-urban population of California that Proposition 8 was wrong. Oh yeah, and because we don’t have any days off left and our moms will kill us if we don’t come home for Christmas.
It’s not that we don’t want you to call in gay — quite the reverse. Statistics show that knowing even one gay person makes a person much more favorable to homosexuals as a whole, and reminding your co-workers that they do know a gay person who may want to get married one day is always a good thing.
Foes of Proposition 8 often argue that it’s not gay people — who, after all, are their neighbors, co-workers, and even friends — they object to, it’s gay marriage. Therefore, to them, a day without actual gay people is a little beside the point, perhaps slightly hysterical. But this is exactly what needs to get driven home: You can’t object to part of gay people without objecting to the whole. It’s careless and equivocal to argue that it’s just one part of LGBT life that’s unacceptable. It would be like saying you like Jewish people but not ones that are circumcised, or that you have Latino friends but you only like them when they speak English. You get to like it all, or you get nothing, and that’s what a Day Without Gays is about.
Are any of you calling in gay? Do you think people should? Please tell us about it in the comments — and tomorrow tell us what happened in your office.
“Call In Gay” Same-Sex Marriage Allies Say [CBS News]
