The week of action began this Sunday, Nov. 1st and lasts for the week, as part of a national effort born from the March on Washington and Equality Across America, to fight for LGBT equality. Members of the Queer Activist Coalition here in Gainesville (QAC) (disclosure: I’m a member of the group) has different things lined up. I’ll try to keep abreast on any developments across the country.

Besides grassroots activities, there’s been a lot of developments since the NEM to suggest that activists weren’t pressuring merely the ground. Firstly, the anti-hate act I discuss in my previous post quickly passed through the legislature, and Obama wasted no time giving it his John Handcock. Then, Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter came out in repeal of DOMA on the Huff Post. In Gainesville, members of QAC marched with the student-farm worker alliance in solidarity of human rights issues. In a recent phone conference with the ISO, who really brought it out for the NEM, I learned about what people are doing all across the U.S. to push for equality.

This march is having a larger and larger impact. The Week of Action will be a rest test of what can be done on a grassroots basis, and I’ve seen nothing about it in the gay-blogosphere.

In other news, last week’s “That’s Gay” segment of Infomania was pretty funny, and got me thinking about the social constructions of sexuality. Those familiar with John D’Emilio’s scholarship will probably tell you that the conversion therapy argument warrants some debate. There’s an extreme difference between gay identity and gay behavior, and gay identity is a strictly modern phenomenon. While “gay desires” cannot be averted, identity is self-proclaimed. So any closeted frat guy with a girlfriend, looking for other “str8 actin” men for a sexual encounter on Criagslist is free to consider themselves straight insofar as their behavior remains private, and they can disassociate it from their identity without psychological repercussions.

Those that can’t, may seek some form of therapy. In a free world, people can repress whatever feelings or desires they like and call themselves what they will. The reason why this stuff scares the hell out of me isn’t just because of how fucked up it is that someone would seek therapy, but how sexual identity is socially constructed. It has a two-fold effect: 1) affirming that homosexuality is an innate desire, but 2) relegating behavior to reshape identity. It depoliticizes the issues of identity and has an effect on sexuality in our society.

This is why issues like DOMA are so important. The government’s laissez-faire approach to sexuality would not only be more accepting, but would open the door for people to publicly take sexuality outside of the gay-straight binary that it has been cast it.

Here’s a quick and dirty of what you need to know:

- Flashmob protest for Equality was bad-ass. An intern from The Nation says he’s putting up a video on the Web site. We’ll see when it comes up. I have videos of my own to add once I get it up. And lots of pictures.

- HRC had letters info and supplies for you to write a letter to your representative concerning issues. Corrine Brown, expect a letter.

- The other protest for DADT was a straight-up from the post-8 NoH8 playbook. I left after 45 minutes, and they were still asking people to text and call people to come.

- The Cleve Jones and Sherry Wolf liberation talk wasn’t a talk. It was a call to action! The place was packed, and people were gathered outside just to listen. It was inspirational in the least.

- I’m already late for the HRC picket, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it. We’ll see.

March tomorrow!

Gay, Straight, Black White! Same struggle, same fight!

Yet at the same time, the working-class gays and lesbians (a majority of the demographic) have no support for anti-marriage/anti-assimilation strategies. The economic, emotional and personal benefits of marriage are real. They deserve them.

It seems that these two groups, working-class gays and lesbians and queer radicals should have so much of an agenda they can agree on, so much work to do together.

Take Harvey Milk for example. He built a minority coalition that battled homophobia while simultaneously working for labor rights, rights of the elderly and anti-gentrification. The Gay Liberation Front was vehemently anti-war and the Gay and Lesbian Academic Union put gender inequality at the top of their five-point agenda.

And what about today? Sometimes I’m just way too confused, if not totally distraught.

But I digress. On to Washington.

(Addendum: Donna, featured in the socialistworker.org link, is a member of the Gainesville community and recently spoke at a PSU protest last week in Turlington Plaza.)

I’m really excited because TFP just had a meeting for the October issue, and I’ll be working on a whole spread covering the March on Washington. Everyone has thrown their two cents into the debate since it was announced this summer.

I’m stoked to be able to go and talk to young people across the country about the future of activism/queer politics. What does grassroots activism mean in an age of endless blogs just talking about issues? Every month I give my $10 to the Human Rights Campaign, but I can’t help but feel like I’m just contributing to a larger problem — lobbying. People rarely think of politics as something they actively participate it.

So what are your opinions of the March? Are you planning on going? And what kind of coverage would you like to see of it, in print and on the Web?