timing is everything

 We went to Albany with the New York Pride Agenda yesterday to lobby our law makers on lgbt issues. All in all it was a little bit of a clutser - but, in the end, I think, successful . Four busses rolled out of downtown Rochester at 5am!, everyone on our bus was very friendly ( It was the church bus, there was a young bus, not sure what the other two were...) We got a little bit of a primer of what to expect when we got there. Our meetings were already set up. Every Tuesday is "Lobby Day" at the State Legislature.

So, we arrive, our first little glitch is that we are not Rochester, we are Southern Tier, thats fine, we are a more hearty lot than those city boys. The plan is have an over all big meeting ,( there are like 1500 people there)  then break down into our areas ( roch, buffalo, staten island, north country, southern tier, etc......) Then have the big fire up the troops rally outside, Then head out to see our Senators and Representatives.  

I had never been to the state capitol before, so Neil and I took off to explore. Damn!, it is HUGE. For the ATL crowd reading this, imagine dropping the Ga state capitol down on top of Lennox and Phipps and bring in the Fox Theater, it is just a massive complex, above and below ground. Its very pretty, parts of it, and you can tell, just way cutting edge modern in its day, still holds up very well, design wise. Those Rockefellers knew their real estate! We had the big really outside. Turns out the answer to "what do we want"? was not "TOUCHDOWN". Old habits die hard.....

BUT, back to whey we were there, since Marriage Equailty has already easily passed the NY house, Neil and I were going to skip the visit with our house member and just join the , quite large group ( U of R, RIT , plus all the other colleges in town were with us) at our Senator JIM ALESI 's office. Pretty much as soon as we get there and fill out our little hello my name is card, he comes out and asks us into his office.  He as a broken leg , he fell off a ladder, I offer to get him his wheel chair, just the kind of guy I am. We had a very nice 15-20 min meeting, one on one, well two on three, he had his people with him. Seemed very open to voting YES, on the bill when it comes to the Senate. The rest of our group arrived and was shown into the conference room, where we all joined them, but really, the one on one time was much more productive. So, timing is everything! Also the local PBS channel was there filming , so look for me on WXXI this Friday Night, 9:00 pm!

I am not sure how productive this gang lobby tactic is , BUT, it was darn good too see SO many young lgbt kids, High School, college age kids, out there fighting a fight that they will WIN. Just like the story in the NYT this weekend, these kids today have an entirely different mindset about them, and even me ( who , lets face it KNOWS for a fact that youth is SO wasted on the Young)  has to be thrilled for them.

(many thanks to DDG for walking Koda and Pookie!)