Well way back in October, in a world of memories I barely remember, that clap began. And boy, has it been gathering speed. For those of you unaware, google Will Phillips. I mean, hell, the kid has his own wikipedia page. In such a simple act as not standing for the pledge, because, face it—we aren’t a land of liberty and justice for all—he tapped into a vein that just about everyone has some opinion on. He’s quickly become a spokeskid for the LGBTQ movement, traveling around the country with his two wonderfully supportive parents, Jay and Laura.

Being a board member of the organization closest in proximity to Will (the NWA Center for Equality), I’ve had the fortune of getting to work with the “Phillips Phamily”—planning protests, organizing fundraisers, even being on the Center’s kickball team together—and having that cooperation turn into a friendship. Anyone who knows the Phillips will tell you that Will isn’t some anomalous, rebellious child. He’s the child of two of the most wonderful and supportive allies I’ve ever met.

This past Sunday, an article was published on the front page of the NWA Times, talking about All OUT June, the Center’s month of activities. We were, naturally, elated at the publicity and exposure. Our elation, however, was soon tempered; not only was the article somewhat dismissive of our community (rather than saying “LGBTQ,” the article merely used “Gay;” while seemingly innocuous, the verbiage swiftly alienates a whole swath of our wonderfully diverse community and denies them of the identity they’ve worked their whole life for) but it raised several misconceptions about the event.

For, you see, All OUT June received $4,000 in funding from Fayetteville’s Advertising and Promotions committee, for the exact purpose of that commission—advertising and promotions. The commission is overseen by several community members who are all part of the hospitality industry—restauranteurs and hoteliers—and awards grants from taxes levied on their own industry. To the best of my knowledge, the grants are awarded to organizations and events in the hope that they will use said money to draw people to events within the city, which will, in turn, bring in more than what was awarded.

But that’s kind of a complex matter to explain, especially to sensationalized crowds who see that “THE MAYOR IS FUNDING SODOMY;” a charge more or less levied every day since that article came out. Being one of the most stereotypical and publicly visible embodiments of Pride, the nay-saying community has turned to the Pride Parade to be held this Saturday, June 26th, at 10 AM, and have sensationalized it by claiming the city is throwing the parade for us. First off, this is a complete fabrication. The Parade is organized by NWA Pride, an organization separate (though no less important) from the NWA Center for Equality. They received no money.

Furthermore, the money we received from the city was not voted upon by the Mayor nor the City Council, and was not intended to promote any agendum—gay or otherwise. Its purpose is to bring money and business to the city. Today, however, the American Family Association has started an email bomb to the Mayor and City Council, with, I believe, the word “GOD” all in caps and something about vengeance. The Mayor, however, has indicated he still supports the parade, and will still issue us a proclamation. (For more information on how to contact the City Council and thank them for their support, see this post on the Center’s blog)

Of course, this all comes around full-circle. We couldn’t forget Will Phillips. He did the grand tour; now he’s doing our tour: he’s the Grand Marshal of the Parade. Begin the onslaught of claims of horrid parents brainwashing their children. And this is, of course, evidence of that most insidious of gay plots—to recruit children. But among all of the hatred spewed at Jay and Laura, none of them seem to acknowledge that, perhaps, Will made this choice on his own and is standing by it. Because they don’t believe that a ten-year-old can have thoughts of his own.

Every morning, I wake up, and the first thing I do is check my email, on my iPhone. Because that’s the world that we live in. Usually, I have three or four, but this week it’s been 12 or more each weekend, updating me of the latest streams of vitriol and hate directed not only at the LGBTQ community of Northwest Arkansas, but at Will Phillips and his family. And why at them? For the audacity of supporting the rights of others.

It’s been kind of stressful, and there have been a few moments that brought me to the edge of tears. But I’ve only received the secondary brunt of it. And I’ve received it because I have to: I’m gay; this is my battle. Jay and Laura, though, have no stock in this: they’re being called horrible parents, daily, by people who do nothing but shout hate. Why? Because they stand up for us, and for their son. Because they stand up for what is right, even though it doesn’t have to affect them.

This whole week has just been going crazy. Lots of mudslinging. Thankfully, they’re mostly all groups far away, and we’ve got tremendous local support. This year’s Parade promises to be bigger than ever, and it’s all because people are willing to stand up. We’re getting stronger, and they’re getting scared.

Let’s use this trouble to become stronger as a community; they’re afraid of us, so let’s be a lot to be afraid of.

Being affiliated with a 501(c)3 really helped out. As the event was sponsored by the NWA Center for Equality (dues paid member, represent) I had a built-in net of help; the booth at the Farmers’ Market used their tent, table, and members. Our ribbons and other supplies were purchased by the center. I didn’t buy anything, just planned. A friend wrote our press release, and sent it to all of the news outlets. I made the facebook invite, and invited some friends. They invited some others, who kept the process up. Last time I checked, 1014 people had been invited. 101 had confirmed their attendance (these numbers never pan out, and we never got a full count, but the paper estimated 100 people showed). I sent out emails asking for volunteers, gave them all a couple of hours to work at the booth at the Farmers’ Market, and planned on being there the whole morning.

The night before the protest was spent mostly cutting ribbons and decorating our poster. That morning we set up at the market and began to wait. Eventually Saundra, an Avon lady, dropped off the box of lipstick samples she had promised us, and the real fun began.

Boyd Logan's kiss

The samples were in response to a question many people had raised on the facebook invite: “how can I participate if I don’t have someone to kiss?” We threw some ideas around (a kissing booth), and eventually I had that “A-ha!” moment: we’ll get a poster and some lipstick, and people can show their support by kissing the poster. This turned out to be very popular, and a lot of people at the market came to our booth and kissed our poster. My favorite kiss was by Marley, an 18-month-old whose (straight) parents encouraged her to kiss. A lot of people picked up our rainbow ribbons, too (we ran out!), and some of them gave us donations for the ribbons! Not once did we ask for money, but we ended up making $34!

People started showing up about 30 minutes before the protest. And with the people came the media; all three local news stations sent cameramen, both papers sent reporters, and a CNN iReporter drove down from Bentonville to cover the event. I had a couple of TV interviews before the event. At 5 till, I got everyone to congregate around the steps—where we had placed a pride flag—and I took the “KISS” poster with quite a few kissprints on them. I did a countdown using my watch, and saw everyone smooch for a second. I walked down into the crowd asking where my kiss was until the boy appeared out of nowhere, pecked me, and let me get back to interviews.

After the kiss proper, I was questioned by both papers. I gave pretty simple information—I’m doing this cause I feel safe to be gay in Fayetteville, and I want everyone to know that I feel safe. Right as I was winding up, Barbara Rademacher, the CNN iReporter, asked me for an interview. By now I was familiar with what to do—I spelled my name and repeated my spiel (somewhat quickly) about why I planned the event. I helped take down the booth, then went home, napped, and caught myself on the 6:00 news. The night was filled with celebrations—Casey Willits congratulated me on a good first protest, saying that I really got the numbers out.

Front Page of the Times, baby!

But it was Sunday morning that I was waiting for. I got copies of both papers and took them down to the center. There were a few of us there, and we looked over the articles together. The NWA Times had put us on the front page, with a nicely-sized article and a kind of obscure photo. The Morning news put us a few pages in; no article, just some captioned photos, but they actually showed two women kissing (a same-sex display of affection was not to be found on any other report). We were all pleased by the coverage. A few hours later, we found the CNN iReport, and felt that that gave a good depiction of the day’s events.

On Monday morning, I awake to a text message from Casey Willits: “Fwd:The Fayetteville kiss-in is featured on CNN.com today.” My only response: “Holy shit.” I quickly ran over to CNN.com and, lo and behold, found a link to MY interview. It’s not just any Kiss-In that’s featured on CNN, it’s the FAYETTEVILLE event. By this time, I’m getting pretty damn excited. I pimp it out to everyone I can think of—Twitter, facebook, text messages. Random friend requests start coming in on facebook, with messages like “Jonathan, I saw you on CNN and as a gay southern man who has a home in Little Rock, I am so proud of you and I hope that we can become facebook friends! Hugs! Michael” attached to them.

In my excitement, I call my mom. “I MADE THE FRONT PAGE OF CNN!” I tell her. Her response: “your grandfather is pissed off.” She doesn’t share my elation at the success of the event. This has been the only negative reaction I have received so far. Overall, the iReport has been viewed almost 30,000 times. Combine that with everyone who reads the paper and watches the local news, and it’s probably safe to estimate that I was outed to around 45,000 people. And damn, it feels good. All of the reactions, save the one from my mom, have been incredibly positive and really inspiring. My favorite reactions are as follows:

• While staffing the booth at the market, I ran into my 8th grade guidance counselor, with whom I was very close. She told me she was proud of me and donated $20 to the center without being asked
• The next day, Karla Caraway—practically a surrogate mom due to the amount of time I used to spend at her house during middle school and jr. high—told me “Saw your pic in the paper this morning.  Good going–proud of ya!” on Facebook
• Karla’s husband, Steve, works at the Morning News, and emailed me a copy of the photo of me they ran
• All sorts of showings of support on twitter and facebook poured in. Lots of texts from friends telling me how awesome the CNN front page was

A lot of the comments the CNN story received went along the lines of ‘I didn’t realize how open-minded Arkansas had become!’ While this isn’t necessarily the case for the whole state, it certainly is for Fayetteville. Practically the whole city now knows my sexual orientation, and not a single bad thing has happened to me because of it. As far as protests go, I can count the Fayetteville Kiss-In as a smashing success. It did exactly what I wanted, by showing that Fayetteville is an open, safe, and accepting place.