Gay Civil Disobedience
09 09 10 - 13:13 Category: .
Dan Savage makes great points and creates great ideas. One of them, is a "human-scale" act of civil disobedience to present our message to President Obama:
Here's the idea: one gay or lesbian couple—a couple currently denied their rights under DOMA—shows up at the entrance to the White House grounds. A different couple every day. They ask to speak to the president about DOMA. They're refused. They sit down. They refuse to leave. They're arrested, carried away by the police. Couples would be recruited from all over the country, demonstrating that gay marriage isn't just an issue in liberal California or godless New England, and the media in each couple's home city and state would be notified in advance of their arrest. The occasional famous couple—Rosie and Kelli? Ellen and Portia?—would participate to pull in celeb media. But most of the couples who come to D.C. to get arrested would be average folks. The couples would need support, legal and logistical, and we would need someone to organize media outreach and maintain a website. The website would include a photo and profile of each couple that comes to D.C. to get arrested, collect all the press, and be used to recruit couples willing to travel to D.C. and get arrested.
Now here is my idea, blossomed from his idea and turned a little more hostile. It is of course an unrealistic notion. I cannot imagine things getting bad enough that we violate any laws, but the idea is a fun one:
Under DOMA gay individuals are not subject to the same set of civil rights and civil laws as the rest of the country, a violation of the 14th Amendment. We should take this and wield it to our advantage. If we are "special" and the civil liberty of marriage is out of our reach, then the other side of the coin is that we are "special" and outside the reach of civil laws as a general rule.
Go out and commit tiny violations, commit civil disobedience and get fined for misdemeanor charges. Get a speeding ticket, shoplift a candy bar and get caught, sit somewhere you're not allowed to sit and refuse to move, get in trouble for something and then refuse to admit guilt. it's a civil law, and apparently the gay community is outside the equal domain of this these laws. Refuse the guilt and bog down the legal system dealing with the hoop jumping.
They'd probably make our life miserable, but we'd make theirs miserable right back, and I'd hope we'd make a point.