Hey, Rach, have her move to my state where she’d have been able to get married for years now.
I put a pink square on my facebook wall. Maybe slacktivistic, but I happen to be a pretty well known person in my community. Public official, even. And I’m male. Three-quarters of the people on my facebook who are posting the pink squares are women. Men–even straight, married men such as myself–seem hesitant to publicly admit they support gay rights. Even in Massachusetts. So I figure that a visual show of support might “help” in some way.
I don’t associate with people who don’t support equal civil rights for all people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. I’m not friends with [del]closet supporters[/del]cowards. Just declaring my bias.
Even outside of slacktivism, I dislike conspicuous donation almost as much as I dislike conspicuous consumption. I think it’s gross when people brag about how much charity work they do or how much money they donated to x, because that’s a pretty clear indicator that they’re only/mostly doing it for the praise. I’m sure the human fund appreciated their donation just as much as they appreciated the one from the anonymous donor, but socially their motives are highly suspect. That’s not a person I’d friend on facebook. And that’s someone who *actually *took action. Now, to even think about the douchebags who do nothing but change their profile pictures, then run around patting each other on the back for being so worldly and open-minded? Aren’t enough :rolleyes: on the planet for 'em.
So lets get this straight. You don’t support closet supporters, or cowards, as you call them. You’re not even friends with them. But you demonize people who are doing something supportive in the most visible way possible. I guess you’re hard to please.
As you’ve been reminded of already, “changing a profile picture” does not encompass the extent of everybody’s involvement with a cause. You’d be smart to remember that before you go rolling your eyes at everyone because of your assumptions.
Should probably read something like: “If I didn’t change it to support something universally supportive like kids who were molested, then I’m not going to change to support gay marriage, which is very supported, but not as universally as the kids”
Then you are not being an ally of the GLBT community. Over the years, every study, every poll, every attempt to metricize the gay rights movement has found that the most effective and strongest method of converting homophobes into allies is by demonstrating to them how many of their friends and family are GLBT or allies of GLBT people. Knowing that you know even one gay person is often enough to make someone do a 180. If you close yourself off from that larger community, you never have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue. I’m disappointed, but not surprised.
I don’t bother with stuff like this because my Facebook friends literally only comprise of my actual friends - people I associate with on a regular or semi-regular basis. They know how I feel about issues like this without my changing my profile picture so that it’s the same picture as everyone else’s picture.
So you isolate yourself in a world with only people who think like you and are as brave as you. Bully for you. Not exactly a great way to promote the cause you claim to care so much about, but good luck with your donations and letters.
I’m certainly not claiming that it makes a difference. But you know what? Right now, only say a dozen or so people are able to make a difference…
The nine supreme court justices, and whoever is arguing the cases.
All I can do now is to hope that I can send the right vibes so that case finishes quickly and in favor of equality.
BTW, I live in Texas and vote against the yahoos that are anti-gay marriage. Since my cousin on one side of the family, and a cousin’s daughter from the other side of the family are gay, so most of my family at least doesn’t actively work against gay rights. I hope your sister can get married soon, so I can see my cousin wed!
Well, I broke down under the peer pressure and changed my profile picture. Found a nice variant with Marcie and Peppermint Patty (since most of my queer friends are lesbians). If I were closer to gay men, I would have chosen the Bert and Ernie pic.
(My informal poll may be inaccurate. I really don’t care enough to survey my friends and as certified old persons we are more likely to talk about our operations and health issues over beer than our dating escapades.)
Do you not think that sometimes non-engagement outside those “in the know” can be counter-productive towards achieving the ultimate goal? That perhaps a closed conversation can quickly become impenetrable to outsiders?
Depends on values of “very supported.” It’s still quite a divisive issue, only in the last year or two has it finally crossed the threshold where a slim majority of Americans support it rather than are against it. It’s actually quite amazing for me to see how much attitudes have changed from even 10 years ago.
Count me with supporters of marriage equality who didn’t change their FB pics because it’s slacktivism. More specifically, I felt it would be dishonest: the two reasons to change, in my opinion, are either to represent the actually efficacious work one has done to further the cause of marriage equality or to mark oneself as someone who has a personal stake in the outcome, raising visibility and (sad but true) perceived normalcy. And neither of those things apply to me.
For those that think that changing your profile picture is just slactivism… Would you walk through a busy mall or down a busy street wearing a t-shirt that says “Marriage equality for all”?
This whole thing reminds me of those insufferable flag lapel pins that every politician had to wear for several years lest they be accused of being a traitor to America.
I might buy such a shirt from a pro-equality organization and wear it. Then it not only represents but directly reflects my “work” on behalf of the cause.
Also, I’m not likely to encounter many violent homophobes in the malls I go to or the streets I walk on, but in principle by wearing a shirt I’m engaging with people who can express their disagreement in a very direct way. Defriending me on Facebook doesn’t have quite the same impact.
I’ve got one FB friend who is a dissenter. He has changed his profile pic to pink and red bathroom symbols for male and female. He has been linking to Breitbart columns and more to show support. While I understand his point of view, he will not sway mine. Maybe I could sway his if he could meet my brother and his partner of 32 years.
Well, if I had such a shirt on hand and it was clean and reasonably-fitting, sure. I’d be as likely to pick any other clean, reasonably-fitting t-shirt I had on hand, though. Would I buy such a shirt? If someone I knew was selling them for some sort of fundraiser or whatever, yeah, probably. Unless it was really fugly, in which case I’d most likely just give them a donation. Would I specifically seek out such a shirt for the sole purpose of letting people know that I support marriage equality? No. I figure people already know I wasn’t raised in a damn barn and can figure it out for themselves.