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I'm putting my "life" where my mouth is in the most direct way I can possibly think of. I left my job as a project manager making a significant ammount of money after six years because I wanted to work in the non-profit world as an advocate for human rights in my community. After volunteering every weekday for about four weeks at one of the major progressive organizations dealing with women's rights and gender equality, I was offered a position as a community organizer to work on defeating the proposed marriage discrimination amendment on the ballot november 7th.
Since that time I have become the campaign manager for the Political Action Committee formed from a coalition of progressive organizations and passionate activist individuals throughout the state. I've gone well, well into debt, working 60 hours a week is a light week. I've bled, sweat and cried for this campaign because I believe that marriage a human right, and equality for all persons one of the most sacred bedrock principles that we must defend above all other. And I say that as a straight man, who could marry my wonderful amazing girlfriend any time I saw fit.
Now, it would be sad to me if you didn't think that qualified as me doing enough for the Democratic Party. I'm a member of the Democratic Party because I believe that, despite some bad apples in the beltway, it is the party that should be (and usually is) as passionate and committed to this principles and this fight for equality and fairness as I am. Thankfully we have a couple wonderful democratic allies in the legislature, one of whom has been active in every possible (and legal!) way possible in our efforts. Some democrats run the opposite way from us too, not wanting to touch this issue, but that's to be expected I guess.
In the end, this was the work I could do that I believed made the biggest impact for fairness and social justice in my community, and I've left everything else I had behind to do that work.
Just as a final note - though I'm reasonably certain I don't know anyone here, I feel I would be terribly amiss if I left the impression that I somehow single handedly do the work of this campaign. If it were not for the tireless support of mentors, partners and allies in this campaign I would fall flat on my butt, every time I tried to walk out the door. It is truly a team effort, and I'm blessed to work with some amazing, passionate dedicated folks! :)
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