The Lobby

On Wednesday I took part in a conference call that Equality Florida put on to prepare us to lobby our state senators and representatives. Frankly I'm quite terrified at the proposition. The conference call went over basics but I don't feel like it really prepared me to deal with a hostile response.

Before the conference call I was ready to march right in and demand equal rights for our LGBT population. If anything the conference call undermined my confidence by helping me realize that I don't know shit about how to deal with politics.

Fortunately, our local PFLAG chapter president has offered to go with me if "this is something I really feel the need to do". That phrase alone frightens me. BUT to quote one of my favorite movies "Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all."

And so with this in mind, I will be calling on Monday to make an appointment with both relevant politicians.

This is more important than fear. I said after the vote in September that I was no longer going to stand back and let others make decisions for me. I will no longer stay on the sideline. So I will master my fear and have the conversations.

I will remind our politicians that what is right is not always popular and what is popular, my friends, is not always right.