Join The Impact: Dayton 2008

Since anti-gay issues and amendments were passed in four states on Election Day, the gay community has been busy. SEO Marketer Amy Balliett started a true grass roots movement called Join The Impact three days after the polls closed and by mid-week, the excitement had spread internationally. Peaceful protests were planned in over 300 cities in every state and 11 countries.

I went to the protest in Dayton, Ohio this morning. I’ll be honest; I really didn’t want to. I’m actually not much of an activist (never mind my bluster here), and I’m not exactly active the local gay community. But after spending the morning trying to convince myself to stay home, I decided that doing that would make me a hypocrite. So off I went.

The protest started at 1:30, though I didn’t arrive until a little past 2:00. The temperature hung around freezing all day. We had snow all morning, then sleet around 1:00, which gave way to rain, then snow again, then rain again. The local paper put the number of attendees at around a hundred, and we were small but mighty.

There was chanting (which we totally sucked at) and people passed around the megaphone to say a few words of encouragement. One recently married man from Los Angeles happened to be in town and rallied the crowd. Another young man held a sign proclaiming that he’s recently engaged, helping to drive home the purpose of our protest.

There’s a bus stop right in front of the courthouse, and it was interesting to see the reactions of people waiting for the next bus. But Dayton isn’t exactly a hotbed of political discourse, so some passers-by weren’t quite sure what to make of us.

When it became clear that the rain wasn’t going to subside and the traffic had gotten pretty sparse, the organizers called it (thank goodness) around 2:45. There was noise of moving to a local café, but I came on home.

I took a couple pictures, but when I loaded them up I realized that they were all of people’s backs. This is the best of the bunch.

Join The Impact: Dayton 2008