Following the Example of Broadway Impact

This month, if you watch In The Life, public television’s newsmagazine about LGBT issues, you will see a segment on Broadway Impact. The group was founded by three New York theatre denizens (Jenny Kanelos, Rory O’Malley, and Gavin Creel, who currently stars in the revival of Hair on Broadway) to fight for marriage equality.

Broadway Impact has organized rallies and demonstrations, staged performances and raised awareness about this issue among a whole new demographic. They also, last October, chartered 15 buses to bring young New Yorkers to the March on Washington. Gavin Creel even talked his producers into closing Hair for that night so the entire cast could go.

The March, if you don’t remember, was a rather contentious event within the LGBT community, and that’s the point of this story. Lots of longtime LGBT leaders hated the whole idea. They said it wasn’t well organized, that the timing was bad, that, strategically, it was a distraction from other, more important efforts. Barney Frank even declared, as Marchers poured into the city, that the whole thing was a “waste of time” and he wished they’d go home.

Barney Frank was wrong. All the traditional strategic thinking was wrong. As Time Magazine reported, the March was a coming out party for a new generation of activists. They weren’t all gay. They didn’t all want to get married. They were just incensed, on principle, at the idea that some people could vote away the rights of others. This, by the way, is the very definition of “grass roots.”

They were also very savvy. They blogged, and posted videos, and Twittered every moment. The March may not have received the media coverage that mainstream LGBT leaders thought it needed, but the virtual crowd that day was innumerable. It’s still growing as people visit YouTube and Blogger and, well, Change.org at this very moment.

The Marchers were also joyful. That is something which is often lost in our movement: that we are fighting for joy. The joy of being together with the partners we adore. The joy of being welcomed into the great community of couples. The joy of growing up, of becoming committed, of doing good work.

My husband and I Marched, and it was a joyful, inspiring experience. And one week later, we went to see Hair in New York, on the very night In the Life was filming. They interviewed us (although we’re not in the final segment) and then they called backstage, though we didn’t know it, and told Gavin Creel that there was a gay couple celebrating their first anniversary in the audience. And he got on the PA system and told the rest of the cast.

At the end of the show, one of the cast members found us. She invited us backstage. Everybody wanted to meet us. They were thrilled to celebrate with us. And, of course, so were we.

They are doing good work, these kids from Hair and Broadway Impact. They are filled with passion, and they believe that they can make change.

This process of winning equality is not neat or linear. Strategy is indispensable, but only when it’s coupled with passion and joy.

Broadway Impact is getting this right. May we all follow their example.

Photo credit: Cristian Asher