Call in gay and take the day off.

In the same vein as A Day Without a Mexican, Join the Impact has organized a nation-wide boycott for International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2008 entitled A Day Without A Gay. 

"LGBT workers, business owners, consumers, and taxpayers contribute over $700 billion to the U.S. economy each year and should not be treated as second-class citizens" - A Day Without A Gay Facebook event page

"Gay people and our allies are compassionate, sensitive, caring, mobilized, and programmed for success. A day without gays would be tragic because it would be a day without love." - A Day Without A Gay Website

This is probably the best excuse for calling in sick (er, well, you know what I mean) to work you'll ever have!

Prop 8 Protest in Austin!

This is a long picture post, so I'm sorry if it loads slowly.

Here are a few of the photos I took at the proposition 8 protest yesterday at City Hall here in Austin. We had a much bigger crowd than I expected-- about 2,000 people!


These guys offered me some "homo-made" pumpkin bread.

People lined up along the curb outside City Hall after the speeches were done.



After the rallying outside City Hall for a while, we marched up to the Capitol and around downtown.

Favorite picture of the day.

Passing by Oilcan Harry's, a gay bar downtown.

Real Women Respond to Sarah Palin Live Webathon Today!

Lucinda, the president of WomEMPOWERment, let me know about the Sarah Palin Webathon through Facebook- thanks lady!

Go vent.. it'll make you feel a little bit better. We definitely did some of that at the WomEMPOWERment meeting last night!

The Op-Ed Project

I'm at a workshop for the Op-Ed project taught by the wonderful Courtney Martin today, and I couldn't be happier for this opportunity to learn the tools and skills necessary to get my voice as a woman heard by the world. I'm on lunch break right now, and halfway through, I already feel so empowered and inspired- not only because I am surrounded by so many amazing and intelligent women, but because I now have a better understanding of how to make my feminist voice heard in the most effective way.

It's days like this that I am proud to be a feminist. I feel as if I'm having a spiritual awakening, like I have so much to say that I can't even express in words yet. I know by using what I've learned today, I'll get there, and get my voice heard- starting right here, by typing inside this text box.

Volunteer Frustrations

So, I figured snagging a volunteer opportunity at one of the many women's health centers around Austin would be a snap. Women's health centers are so starved for volunteers, right?

... Apparently not. I've called, and called, and called.. and called and called and called. So far, not one agency has called me back to solicit my 45 WHOLE HOURS of work I'm willing to do for them for free. I know that it's probably necessary to bug them a bit, but I can't help but feel frustrated that I've come up with nothing thus far. Every agency I've called generally seems uncoordinated in hiring volunteers because none of them really have anyone that specifically deals in that area. I don't know if it's lack of volunteers per se as it is lack of funding to pay someone to do that job.

It's not that these people don't want to call me back. Conveniently, the fact that I can't snag an opportunity at any of these places fits right in with my line of thinking. Because the federal funding for these places is virtually non-existent, the limited amount of people who hold paid positions at these health centers probably have more on their plate than they can handle, with accommodating people who want to volunteer just one of their many tasks.

On the brighter side, I managed to find a comprehensive volunteer application for Planned Parenthood online, which I hope to deliver in person to their offices on Ben White (conveniently located a matter of minutes away from SEU! Hooray!) tomorrow. Here's hoping!