Define "Meaningful"

A good friend of mine read my last entry about the protests and asked me what meaningful meant.  I considered what he said and realized that especially because many people feel emotional about the issue of Prop 8, they could take actions that would not be helpful.

First and foremost: Do not break the law.
We already have an incident where someone has been sending powder filled envelopes to the mormon temples and it has gotten the FBI involved.  That does nothing but make those protesting prop 8 look like a bunch of crazy psychopaths.  Please do not engage in and get into physical fights with prop 8 supporters.  If you want to look at an example of how to protest correctly, look to Romaine Patterson and her "Angels" at the Matthew Shepard trial.

Start talking to your friends and family, whether you are gay, straight, bi, trans, whatever.  Get the word out on how this issue affects others, including yourself if you are affected.  Make the point that this is absolutely a civil issue, not a spritual issue.  What I have said for years is that it is not like gay people are going to storm the churches, put a gun to the priest's head, and demand that they perform the marriage.  It is the absolute truth, many gay folk are either not in church, or they dont follow religions that have issues with them.  The ones who do would like to enlighten their churches, but they realize that's an uphill battle, and they're not going to completely take that on right now.  It is a civil issue, period.  If you believe that God think that being gay is wrong, fine, that's your belief, but God also thinks discrimination is wrong as well.  There is no reason discrimination should be sanctioned in our constitutions.  

Write to your representatives at the city, county, state, and federal levels.  Let them know what you think.  If you and many others can show a politician that you care about this issue and giving equal rights to all people, they will start paying attention.  If your politicians go against the idea of civil rights, then work to get them voted out of office, and I mean work by supporting the other candidate and spread the word about how the incumbent voted against the rights.

Consider volunteering some time and perhaps make a donation to a group that is working towards same-sex marriage rights.  It seems that every state has an "Equality [state]" organization, so there may be something out there.  I wholeheartedly suggest that you vet the organization as much as possible to see what they have done to make sure that they are actually trying to do the work rather than just take your money and laugh all the way to the bank.

Finally...VOTE!!!!  Believe it or not, there is more than just the presidential elections every four years.  Many states or cities have an election every year for something, and the politicians can be changed in an "off-year."  Make your voice heard, go vote!