Here's the situation: Jones is promoting a "million gay march" on DC, to take place in October. I fully support this action. Marching on the steps of the Capital will certainly make our presence more visible, and Jones has been keen to mine the fervor of the post-Prop 8 gay community, and he has the background to make a real move (haven't you seen Milk yet?). We have been complacent for too long. In my lifetime, I've never seen our community so active as it has been since November. Jones' timing is pretty spot-on. But the question is, to what end? Marching itself never seems to really get the point across, and often times even gigantic protests are too easily ridiculed and belittled by our political opponents, who have taken the wind out of the sails of such hippie generation actions. So, what do we do?

This is the question I've been pondering lately, because frankly being gay in America means being a second-class citizen.

Savage hit the nail on the head. We really do have to do more than just march if we want to be taken seriously. We have to have an act of civil disobedience that will rip a hole in the fabric of the discourse to date. Savage's suggestion is that one gay couple a day go to the White House and ask to speak to the President about DOMA. When they are refused, they sit down and get arrested. And then the next day another couple does it. And the next, and so on for a year. "Drip drip drip," Savage says, insinuating that a steady series of small acts of friction can have a real effect on policy, wearing away the will of our leaders to ignore the civil rights of a minority for reasons of politicking.

If we demand equality under the law, we must be willing to act to secure that in the face of such politicking. Without action, we are nothing but pawns in the greater political game, tantalizing grapes of ending DADT and evicting DOMA set out in front of us when our votes are needed. Savage points out that this small rebellion puts the fight into human scale. All it requires is that one couple a day go make a small protest.

My suggestion? Don't limit this action to gay couples. I have two main reasons for this. The non-conjugationalist argument against DOMA-esque policy was the only argument that won out over conservative state constitution amendments in 2004*. This is because it is the only argument that points out a very important fact: DOMA will not affect gay couples alone, but would ironically be the self-same radical redefinition of "family" that conservatives love to throw around to justify their homophobic agenda. All families are hurt by DOMAs, on the state and federal level. Furthermore, and because of this, building a coalition of many different kinds of families will only strengthen our argument and broaden our base. When straight people realize that DOMA means no visiting rights for grandmothers who raise grandchildren, and no passing of property from one sibling to another after death, what was once a minority issue becomes a majority issue.

Civil disobedience is the best exercise of our power as citizens that we have. If you're fed up with being a second-class citizen, as I am, you have a responsibility to yourself, to your community, to your country as a whole, to do something about it. Come to the march in October! And if you're visiting our nation's capital, as so many do during the summer, while you're taking in the Smithsonian and strolling around the Mall, why don't you stop by the White House and ask the President why you can't get married, and why he's breaking his promises to you? I know I will.

*Google: Arizona DOMA 2004

EDIT: Sullivan enters the picture because that is how I found out about Savage's blog. Apparently, he is also a fan of the idea.