Taking Names, Starting Conversations, and Changing Minds
T.A. Barnhart
Amanda Waldroupe, Reedie, Bus Project volunteer & all-around great human being, joined a group of Politicorps Fellows as they headed to Hillsboro to talk to voters about marriage equality. She writes:
The first door Silver knocks on is answered by a man who quickly tells her he supports gay marriage. He also signs a pledge Silver carries. Silver is met by supporters and pledge signers at the second and third doors she approaches.
“Usually, it’s not home, not home, not home,” Silver says, surprised.
And when no one is home, she leaves an informational flyer produced by BRO, at one point carefully navigating around a wild turkey beginning to puff out its feathers.
“We’re not trying to sell anything,” Silver says for the umpteenth time, speaking to a middle-aged woman. “We’re just out talking to people about an issue that’s been in the news a lot lately, asking if you think committed gay and lesbian couples should have the right to marry.”
The Bus Project is partnering with Basic Rights Oregon to talk to Oregonians about marriage equality and prepare for an eventual ballot measure to give all Oregonians equal rights to marry:
Describing the canvassing as educational outreach, volunteers from the Bus Project have knocked on 4,400 doors in and around Portland, with aims to knock on a total of 15,600 by summer’s end.
The canvassers aren’t out to convince. They simply hope to provoke a dialog.
“It’s important to know how large our base of support is, and where it is,” Lindsay says.
Amanda's entire report is online at Just Out. And if helping bring full rights to Oregon's GLBT community is important to you, contact the Bus (503.233.3018) or Basic Rights Oregon. I went out with another group of Politicorps Fellows last night, to West Linn, and it's a great experience learning what others are thinking on this subject.
 |
More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
connect with blueoregon
Aug 7, '09
Watching Heterosexuals try and justify treating the very Gay people that Heterosexuals themselves created as less than human has been quite eye-opening to watch across this country.
Watching so many of you screaming your heads off about morality, while condoning the abuse and violence you commit against the very Gay people Heterosexuals themselves created, has been eye-opening as well.
Really Heterosexuals? You want to play this on a moral level? Really? I would think about that one before you try and deny equal rights to 30 million Americans. Because if Heterosexuals continue to destroy marriage (up to 60% divore rate last year) at the rate they currently are, if they continue to abort their children at the rate they are (google it - the statistics are staggering) and if you continue to abandon hundreds of thousands of your children, leaving them in the care of the state and orphanages at the rate you are, I think that it is time that we take marraige and family out of the hands of Heterosexuals altogether.
No other group has done more to destroy marraiges and families than Heterosexuals. And now, you aren't content just destroying your own marriages and families, you want to destroy Gay & Lesbain families along with your own???????????
Morality indeed, Heterosexuals.
Morality indeed.
Aug 7, '09
Bill, that post was gibberish. I think your effort at having a writers' "voice" got terribly in the way of whatever you were trying to communicate.
Please try again - I am sure it deserves respect of some kind. But I don't really get what you are saying.
Are you raging at heteros? Why? Not sure what "create" means in your neologistic rant.
Aug 7, '09
Then maybe just ignore it rw.
I wouldn't expect you to understand.
Aug 7, '09
Pug bites self. Bill: your teeth are in your ass again.
Aug 7, '09
I took "create" to mean they were born to heterosexual couples.
Do I win a prize?
Aug 7, '09
Jim, more than likely you are right. Me, I was hearing a rant from a pissed off something or other who wanted to equate the het-urr-oh-secks-yoo-all mindset to that of some hubristic demagogue who thinks he's gawd.... "creates".... :)....
I'm impressed by you and more than a little ashamed that I did not want to try to speculate what this unhappy fellow had going on in his head... just wanted him to spit it out straight [oops] so it was coherent.
Aug 7, '09
So, back to the topic: TA, thank you for reporting back on this. I am hopeful and trusting that you would be able to see it if this was not what they say it is - finding out what people think, but not engaging to evangelize.
Sometimes I think you have to meet people where they live and just listen. Don't start trying to change them. Just be respectful and honestly curious about what they think. Leave your SELF at the bus door and wander the interesting land of Key Informant interviewing where the only words that matter are the words offered you by the person you are talking to. I hope you will do some writing if you go some more. Give some colour and sound to who's here and what they are thinking about this issue.
Suspect that the response in Hboro was a little surprising, given the characterizations of Hboro one typically encounters. Nice.
Aug 8, '09
Support the bus project.
9:04 a.m.
Aug 8, '09