Dear NOH8 organizers

So I have some experience in creating public campaigns and while I am still learning, I certainly have an opinion on what I think makes a good campaign and what makes a bad campaign.

First, I’ll commend the NOH8 campaign for:

• being extremely viral and using social media to its best ability
• gaining controversial support. Controversial = news magnet
• engaging a passive generation
• addressing a HUGE injustice to citizens of this country

BUT of course, no one ever writes about something unless they have something BAD to say so here it is.

My problem with the NOH8 campaign is that it loses its effectiveness after the white shirts become smudged with face paint. My point is, it does nothing to educate or gain a mutual understanding between people on each sides of the issues. In fact, it provides more polarization as it implies that there is “hate” among those against gay marriage. I will say that I support gay marriage but I also do not invest a lot of personal value into marriage. I don’t believe those that don’t support gay marriage are bad people but I believe that there are some misunderstanding between the two groups and putting people in bondage-type pinups certainly doesn’t provide a better understanding of the the gay population.

I did appreciate the campaign getting Cindy McCain on board. In addition to finding a way to covering up the extra collagen, they managed to get significant news coverage.

But headlines such as : New Yorkers Protest Prob 8 by Posing with Duct Taped Mouths seems comical and straight out of “The Onion”.

NOH8 managed to target a young generation: The “ME” generation that needs another facebook display picture. The problem is, this isn’t the audience you need. We get it, marriage for all! Why not? This isn’t enough though. Grassroots campaigns are hard and you just need to push people to campaign for their rights the old fashioned way: contacting politicians, let them know they have numbers behind them if they choose to support legislation concerning legal marriage rights for everyone. Let them know that gay people aren’t promiscuous sluts but normal sluts like the rest of us. I’m kidding but I think the real problem is the stigma around it all. It seems like the whole AIDS, sex stigma is outdated BUT unity is still needed and right now, you’re doing a real good job of uniting the choir but it’s time to stop singing the same old song to each other and start building bridges with the rest of the world. Loving those who “hate” you. In fact, that’s the real solution to many of our problems.

[Via http://thestarsandthemoonandthedeepbluesea.wordpress.com]