Yes Virginia: there is a boycott

[dreamer_easy]

I remember reading a great report from Harlan Ellison on how he refused to spend any money while visiting a US state which had failed to ratify the ERA - IIRC not as much as buying a chocolate bar.

Now, with a visit to the US state of Virginia coming up later this year, where it's legal to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in housing, banking, and employment, I'm thinking about following Ellison's example. This could be a bit of a nuisance for family and friends, so I don't want to go too over the top, but I wonder how many shopping trips, meals out, etc, I can move over the border into Maryland. I must of course accompany this behaviour with some letters to relevant politicans and perhaps newspapers too.

At the very least Jon and I should go and break the state's "crimes against nature" law a little.

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Air and Space hasn't had any new exhibits since 2003, so you're probably okay with skipping it.

Oddly enough, I know that there is a pre-History exhibit somewhere in Natural History that has Egyptian and Mesopotamian artifacts (including a bull mummy) but I've only found it once by accident -- I was looking for a bathroom for my niece. Considering I've lived in the area since I was a teenager and love going to the museums, I was kind of startled to find this exhibit that I'd never seen before but which was obviously permanent instead of a rotating exhibit. It's upstairs tucked into a corner.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Heh! Thanks for the tip!

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

minor nitpick: the Udvar-Hazy (http://www.nasm.si.edu/udvarhazy/) center over near Dulles Airport opened right at the end of 2k3, and they've added all kinds of things since then. Personally, I find it particularly stunning and profound (I wrote about that here (http://thegameiam.livejournal.com/159912.html)) - Anyone who travels in through Dulles Airport should make a stop there...

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

We saw that! They have a Space Shuttle and Patriot Missiles and you can watch planes landing at Dulles in the distance.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Right - any museum with both a Space Shuttle and an SR-71 is my kind of cool.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Blackbird, fly!