Example - Kate and I frequently drove past a curiously out-of-place Christian Family Store at our local mall. It always looked empty; we wondered who on earth around here would patronize it -- I mean how many bibles and religious doo-dads can one need in your home when you could probably get it online? Anyway, the store finally bit it a month or two ago.
The sign came down and its replacement turned up this weekend -- The Men's Warehouse is moving in, ha ha. It will no doubt bring in more $$$ with the visible location, and more in-sync demographics.
That's not to say that Durham is anti-religion at all. There are plenty of affirming houses of worship in our city, and many show up to march in Pride. They are active in the community's culture. It's just not fundie-in-your-face culture. Usually the ones we see at Pride come in from more rural counties, wasting their gas to do things like hilariously damn me with a message on a pizza box (right).Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
But for all the laughter (left), that doesn't necessarily translate into epic pro-LGBT votes, mind you.
The battle we have in 2011 and particularly 2012 is simply getting LGBTs and allies to the polls, period. The level of political apathy among the general "heathen" and allied population, is problem largely based on complacency or a lack of a belief that a compelling political issue is worthy of them getting their behinds out to the polls. Ask the progressives of Wake County (Raleigh and environs, who let 3% of the voting pop decide to let fundies run the school board).
I had a recent meeting with a former member of the Durham for Obama campaign who revealed just how hard it was to get people to the polls during 2008, when there was a compelling election and plenty of motivation to go around. She said that despite all the positive polls (NC was a close win for Obama), it took a ton of door-to-door work to make those who expressed how they would vote to actually go to the polls. I forgot she said how many calls/visits were needed to convert into a vote, but it was an astonishing number that grassroots workers all know about.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
When I covered the recent EQUALITY IN ACTION Town Hall Meeting to inform local citizens, LGBT and allies, about the pending marriage amendment in NC (held in the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall), the fact is the very people who needed to know more information didn't attend -- what I would call "political heathens," those who show up to Pride, go out to gay clubs and bars, but don't even know their state lawmakers, let alone ever write a letter to them regarding this amendment.
Also count in that "political heathen" group some well-meaning potential allies that don't know enough about the issue to frame it correctly when confronted by someone using religion to support including discrimination in the state constitution.
So those who do get involved have to think of ways to engage the unengaged in a way that the right-wing already knows how to do so well -- through churches. Progressive churches here need to be out of the closet and as politically active as those opposed to equality. That means the churched speaking to the churched, bringing in pro-equality ministers and pastors on board to play a public role. We need to have press conferences showing faith leaders who want the right to marry gay and lesbian couples.
For the rest it means hitting the campuses, and working with the NC Democratic Party to ensure there is a clear public stance against the amendment and a ground plan that engages the counties that are more prone to be energized by the right, get citizens to let lawmakers know they are watching. We cannot afford to fantasize that our side will turnout to "do the right thing" without hard work from the grassroots to the grasstops in states where there is a lot at stake. There are plenty of people out there who have no idea why it might be important to vote and see casting a ballot as more of an inconvenience than a right that blood was shed to ensure.
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A cautionary tale unfolding at the national level and it should be a surprise to no one. What will proponents of equality do to address this?...
A national anti-gay group has paid to quietly train more than ten thousand pastors across the nation to support socially conservative political movements, and some GOP heavyweights are lending a hand, according to the New York Times....Now AFA is hoping these trainings energize the religious right and get socially conservative pastors to exhort their flocks to vote to restore what they see as the biblical roots of American government. So far the meetings have been organized in Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and several times in Iowa, where a recent gathering drew several high-profile Republicans said to be considering running for president, according to the Times.
..The regional meetings are organized as discrete temporary coalitions, but the AFA is said to be footing most of the cost for transportation and lodging for the pastors and their spouses, who are instructed in ways to become more politically active from the pulpit without running afoul of IRS rules that forbid tax-exempt churches from advocating for specific candidates.