# Now this is what a good protest looks like! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 14, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690 "2011-10-14T23:43:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/1 "2011-10-14T23:43:49Z")
I’ve been among the people who criticize Occupy Wall Street for poor tactics, although I think their goals are overall good. By way of contrast, I want to put forth the local [We Do](http://www.mountainx.com/article/36365/WE-DO-supporters-rally-couple-arrested-in-civil-disobedience-act) campaign: > [@](#): > > Today, about 150 supporters of the WE DO campaign rallied in front of City Hall before marching down to the Buncombe County Register of Deeds, where 12 same-sex couples requested — and were denied — marriage licenses. In an act of civil disobedience, Kathryn Cartledge and her partner Elizabeth Eve, partners for 30 years, sat down and began reading rights given to heterosexual married couples until arrested and removed by Sheriff’s deputies. This campaign is very new, to be sure, but it has, AFAICT, the hallmarks of an excellent protest: 1. It has a specific goal: legal same-sex marriages in North Carolina. 2. It takes advantage of middle-class members of its constituency to promote the broadest possible appeal. 3. It’s well-planned, with specific leaders. 4. It’s media-friendly. 5. The civil disobedience involved is carefully chosen to highlight the injustice of the current law. 6. Religious leaders are actively encouraged to participate, again to symbolize the inherent justice of their claim. I’m not at all opposed to protests; I think they’re grand, when correctly done. I’m not at all saying that protests must be loveless, joyless affairs; these folks are laughing and ferchrissakes trying to get married. I’m saying that a movement, in order to make a difference, needs to be well-directed, thoughtful, and able to take a clear moral high road. [Here’s the We Do Campaign’s website](http://southernequality.org/) if you want more information about what they’re doing; I know that the blurb above was pretty short. I suspect this campaign will be uncontroversial around here–rather than debating its merits, I’m interested in whether folks agree with me that it has several tactical advantages over OWS, and that if OWS could conduct itself similarly, it’d have greater chances of meeting success. Full disclosure: I went to school with the We Do Campaign’s founder, and didn’t so much have a crush on her as existed in total awe of her awesomeness. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/2 "2011-10-15T02:05:26Z")
What’s either protest’s causal mechanism for influencing policy? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/3 "2011-10-15T03:45:11Z")
Jeez, you’d think if there were one place you could get gay-married it would be Buncombe County! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/4 "2011-10-15T14:20:18Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > What’s either protest’s causal mechanism for influencing policy? There’s an anti-gay-marriage amendment coming up for a vote in NC. This protest might influence that vote. It also might generate court cases. It also might, by arranging the issues in stark, easily-understood moral terms, influence enough legislators to effect a change in policy, over time. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/5 "2011-10-15T14:27:52Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > There’s an anti-gay-marriage amendment coming up for a vote in NC. This protest might influence that vote. It also might generate court cases. It also might, by arranging the issues in stark, easily-understood moral terms, influence enough legislators to effect a change in policy, over time. So there is an anti-gay-marriage amendment up for a vote even though gay marriage is not currently legal? ---
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/6 "2011-10-15T14:40:58Z")
> [@markdash](#): > > So there is an anti-gay-marriage amendment up for a vote even though gay marriage is not currently legal? You know how it works: those who are anti-marriage equality have seen marriage equality upheld by the courts in other states due to suitable vague language in the lawbooks, so there is a movement to specifically ban it and remove any chance that the law might be (as they see it) misinterpreted. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/7 "2011-10-15T15:04:22Z")
> [@markdash](#): > > So there is an anti-gay-marriage amendment up for a vote even though gay marriage is not currently legal? Yep. It’s pretty hard to read it as anything other than a red-meat-to-the-faithful move on the part of NC’s first Republican legislature in something like a century. But folks like my friends who, as a lesbian couple, are actually having to have one person sue the other in order to obtain shared custody of their son–they’re gonna be hurt by some of the amendment’s implications, inasmuch as it’ll make their family life that much more legally perilous. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/8 "2011-10-15T15:35:13Z")
> [@Kyomara](#): > > You know how it works: those who are anti-marriage equality have seen marriage equality upheld by the courts in other states due to suitable vague language in the lawbooks, so there is a movement to specifically ban it and remove any chance that the law might be (as they see it) misinterpreted. That doesn’t always work. Just ask California! ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-this-is-what-a-good-protest-looks-like/599690/9 "2011-10-15T16:35:24Z")
I agree that this is a great campaign. In Iowa, couples went to the Registrar to get married and were denied, so they went the lawsuit route. It didn’t draw as big of a crowd, but I like the organization, clean message, and PR this group is doing. Best of luck to them! \<3