From: cjmchale@dsg.cs.tcd.ie (Ciaran McHale)
Subject: Re: Time to take the offensive!!
Organization: DSG, Dept. of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 15:24:57 GMT

In <1992Nov04.164555.150093@watson.ibm.com>
nomad@watson.ibm.com (Lee `nomaD` Damon) writes:
>As long as we stay on the defensive, we won't go anywhere but backwards.
>[...]
>Nelson said how much he hated fighting just to maintain. I agree with
>him fully. Lets stop trying not to go backwards - lets go forwards Instead!

That reminds me of a wacky idea I had a while back. There is every
chance that people might think this idea stupid/infeasible etc, but as
the saying goes:

<> The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of
<> ideas. --- Linus Pauling

So here's an idea. To understand this, you should understand that I
thought of this in the context of Ireland, a country which has the
following characteritics:

	o The power of the Catholic Church is pervasive in society.

	o Emigration is our biggest export. Emigeration of highly
	  qualified people is termed the "brain drain."
	
	o It is not uncommon for a "moral majority" group to publicly
	  attack the GLBO community in the media. GLBO folk are then
	  left to counter attack which is more a form of damage
	  limitation rather than scoring points of our own.

The idea is to (somehow) obtain tens of thousands of pounds to fund an
advertising campaign. (I heard somewhere that a full-page advert in a
respectable daily newspaper costs in the region of 5 thousand pounds and
this idea calls for several half- or full-page adverts.)

The advertising campaign would *not* aim to say that "gay is good".
Rather, it would stress the message that "anti-gay discrimination is
bad." The idea of this is to go on the offensive and force the moral
majority groups to be on the defensive for once.

Here are a few example templates for adverts:

	o What is the cost of institutionalised discriminalisation to
	  Ireland?
		- XYZ million pounds to the encomony
		- A XYZ million pound burden on our health care system,
		  treating people for stress and depression, not to
		  mention an extra XYZ suicides every year.
	  <blurb which talks about XYZ million pounds in lost tourist
	  trade because the Government still hasn't decriminalised
	  homosexuality, etc>


	o Q: How can we curb the brain drain and improve our ecomony?
	  A: Stop discriminating against people on the basis of their
	     sexuality.
	 <blurb which argues that XYZ skilled people who are gay
	 emigrate to escape the oppression they would face in Ireland;
	 also people do not work at their best when under the constant
	 stress of having to pretend that they are heterosexual>


	o Why does the pope ask us to discriminate?
	  <blurb detailing the Vatican's advice to american bishops what
	  it is their duty to discriminate against GLBO folk>


	o Q: How can your business tap a virgin consumer market worth XYZ
	     million pounds per year?
	  A: Tailor your product/services to the needs of lesbians and
	     gay men.
	     <blurb encouraging the following businesses to seek the
	     pink enonomy: travel agencies, life insurance, mortgages,
	     pubs and night clubs, restaurants, etc>

A slogan to finish off each advert might be "Discimination hurts us all."

IMO, the advantages of the above style of adverts are:

	o It is going on the offensive and puts the "moral majority"
	  groups on the defensive.
	o The adverts are likely to be a point of discussion in the
	  media for weeks.


Of course, disadvantages include:

	o It would cost tens of thousands of pounds to cover the expense
	  of advertising.
	o It may be difficult, or impossible, to obtain the appropriate
	  facts and figures; e.g., how can one estimate how many people
	  emigrate because they are gay?

Also, I don't know if the idea would be useable in countries other than
Ireland.


Ciaran
-- 
---- Ciaran McHale (cjmchale@dsg.cs.tcd.ie)
\bi/ Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
 \/  Telephone: +353-1-7021539 FAX: +353-1-6772204
Newsgroups: soc.motss,alt.politics.homosexuality,co.politics