Are we finally catching on?

I'm not one for direct action campaigns. I respect the need for them but I don't like to participate in them.

And I don't believe they should be undertaken if the only goal is to "get attention." Trying to get attention without any idea as to what will be done with the attention is wrong. Too many times, I think that my lgbt brothers and sisters invest too much time and effort in direct action campaigns, enjoying the transitory empowerment. In the long run, direct action campaigns can be counterproductive if there is no cohesive plan as to what is to be done when one gets the attention.

What's the use of shutting down a business or getting arrested if all you get are outrageous pictures or given 30 second soundbites that no one pays attention to because they are too transfixed by the wildness of your actions.

Having said all of that, I would like to commend SoulForce for their recent actions at Focus on the Family headquarters. It was exactly what a direct action campaign should be. Two members of the group were arrested for not leaving the headquarters and demanding that Focus on the Family stop giving out misleading information regarding gay families.

I liked the fact that the two women didn't do anything outrageous that would take attention away from the reason why they were at Focus on Family headquarters. They were focused on why they were there.

I especially liked this part of the article:

Dobson and other Focus spokespeople frequently discredit LGBT parenting with references to "more than 10,000 studies that have showed that children do best when they have a mom and a dad."

Last year the American Psychological Association said that such claims rely on "studies that simply do not address gay and lesbian parents and their children." The APA also said that "no credible evidence shows that children raised by lesbian or gay parents differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents."

My question is why hasn't this fact been trumpeted by our side from day one? I may be wrong in saying this, but reading the article today was the first time I ever saw our press going into detail about the anti-gay industry distortion of gay families.

And I want to see more of it. I want to see it everywhere. I want to see it posted on as many blogs as possible. I want lgbts to be encouraged to write letters to the editor about the distortion. I want it to be a cover story in The Advocate.

I love you Ellen Degeneres, but this is more important. Tammy Lynn, you are my girl, but you have been on too many covers.

Is my community finally focused on what we need to bring attention to? I certainly hope so.