Congratulations, U.S.A. Screw You, Florida, California & Arizona
Whew, what a relief – the United States (and the world) has been saved from a more or less continuation of the catastrophe of the last eight years; gained a historic milestone with its first black President-elect; made Congress less anti-gay; and chosen the less anti-gay presidential ticket, one that for the most part will not actively obstruct equal rights for all (though let’s not forget, Barack may have given us a shout-out in Grant Park, but both he and Biden still give the backs of their hands to equal marriage rights).
But at the same time, it’s painfully apparent that homophobia is still alive and vibrantly stupid, mean-spirited, and scared in this country. The latest slap in the face was the ardent desire of a majority of the electorates of Florida, Arizona, and – especially sad and surprising – California. And despite the fact that Florida and California were key in helping put Obama-Biden over the top, they also screwed the GL community in the bottom – by a fairly narrow margin in California but by large margins in Florida (nearly 2/3 of the electorate) and Arizona (more than half). That means a lot of Obama voters think that fags and dykes need and deserve to stay at the back of the bus.
Speaking as a member of the travel media, it’s not easy for me to propose this, but our community needs to send a message to a pair of states that have profited handsomely from not just from the considerable contributions and taxes of its gay and lesbian citizens but from lesbian and gay tourism from the rest of the United States and the world. That message can only come in the form of a travel boycott to register our shock, dismay, and anger over the nasty desperation of a majority of Californians and Floridians to enshrine discrimination in their state constitutions. We here at GayBabel and I in my other writing will for the foreseeable future not be covering or promoting travel to Florida, California, or Arizona, and we will be seeking to move our base of operations out of Florida as soon as is feasible.
Yes, unfortunately the statewide boycott is a blunt instrument – it’s certainly not fair to penalize places like Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Miami Beach, Palm Springs, Sedona, and San Francisco for the bigotry of their states’ majorities, but this kind of politics works at the state level, and we have to address it at the state level. And I don’t expect much support from the gay media; friends and acquaintances I’ve spoken to about it are understandably reluctant because they draw a lot of advertising from gay tourism businesses in these states. Never mind that such a boycott could be a wakeup call to help light a fire under local gay communities that they are enabling discrimination against themselves unless they really mobilize and make their fellow citizens realize that bigotry has a real cost. It will cost advertising, and pocketbook trumps principle.
But as for you, dear reader, there are plenty of other marvelous places that welcome you and your relationships openly and proudly. I recommend you give them your business instead, spending your money and expanding your horizons in visiting places where you are not hated and feared. Life is too short.
Yours truly,
Dave