by Ai-jen Poo, for Domestic Workers United
from “Organizing with Love: Lessons from the New York Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign”

Rarely do you hear an activist comparing a great campaign to a great love affair. But that’s the exact metaphor Ai-jen Poo used to describe the fantastically successful campaign to give basic labor rights to domestic workers in New York City.

The Domestic Workers United gave a workshop about this campaign on the second day of the US Social Forum (USSF). In fact, it was back at the 2007 USSF in Atlanta where the Domestic Workers United, along with other organizations, came together and formed the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “The social forum is a special occasion for us,” says Poo.

I was at their event at the 2007 USSF and was so impressed by their tenacity and vision. So it’s amazing and inspiring to come back to the social forum three years later and hear about their victory in New York State.

“Today is an exciting day for domestic workers around the country,”says Poo. At any moment, New York Governor David Paterson will sign into law the first set of labor protections for domestic workers. This is no small victory.

For too long, domestic workers–nannies, house cleaners, companions for elderly–have been denied basic labor rights. Domestic workers have been explicitly excluded from U.S. labor protections. And it’s not by chance. When Congress debated legislation during the New Deal Era, Southern lawmakers sought to exempt domestic workers (and farm workers) from federal labor laws.

This discrimination, Poo points out, is rooted in racial and gender oppressions. So this new legislation means so much. “It’s about reparations,” she says. “It’s about justice.”

And it’s about recognizing that caring for people is real work that requires skills.

What’s in the new bill? Two different versions have been passed by the two houses of New York state government. The Senate version is more expansive and would grant guarantees such as paid holidays, sick days, overtime pay, and the right to collective bargaining. Right now, domestic workers are not even entitled to minimum wage.

What the average workers takes for granted, that’s what we’ve been denied, says Patricia Francois, who worked as a nanny in New York for twelve years before losing her job a year and a half ago.

New York is just the beginning. There are campaigns underway in fourteen cities. Claudia Reyes from Mujeres Unidas y Activas talked about the fight for labor rights in California. In 2006, AB 2536, which gave household workers the right to overtime, and fined employers who failed to pay their employees, passed both houses in California. But Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Reyes says that what happens in New York will help domestic workers in California in 2011 and 2012. It’s historic legislation. And it proves that it’s possible.

Poo says that it’s important to not let the political climate curb your vision. If it’s inspirational, people will want to participate.

One thread of discussion that came up over and over again as domestic workers/organizers told their stories during today’s panel was the idea that labor protections seemed impossible for them. But the campaign changed all of that.

“The experience of the campaign to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York has already provided an opening for the transformation of the relations within the domestic work industry and a vision for how we can transform all of our relations throughout our nation and beyond,” writes Poo in a paper about the campaign. “Like a great love affair, it has helped us grow.”

Some say a ruling in favor of gay marriage would mark a huge cultural shift. But pop culture shows the shift is already happening. As with many other social issues, we’re just waiting for the courts to catch up.

For starters, Elton John sang at Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding. The gay marriage ceremony in this summer’s worst blockbuster, Sex and the City 2, was over the top in a way that seemed both dated and defensive. So 2007.

But The New York Times Magazine Q&A with Eminem confirmed the cultural shift for me. (It’ll be  published in this Sunday’s issue but is available online here.)

Eminem was known for his gay bashing and macho swagger, often channeled through his alter ego Slim Shady. But in his soon to be released album, Recovery, the rapper says consciously went in a different direction. “It’s the new tolerant me!,” he told The New York Times. I can’t wait to hear it.

The mellowed out 37-year-old Eminem is now in favor of gay marriage.

NYT: You’ve been accused of writing gay-bashing lyrics in the past. Would you like to see gay marriage approved in Michigan, where you live?

Eminem: I think if two people love each other, then what the hell? I think that everyone should have the chance to be equally miserable, if they want.

Despite the swans and Liza Minnelli cameo performance, SATC2 is not the gay marriage movie of the summer. 8: The Mormon Proposition, which opened in the 15 cities nationwide yesterday, is.

The film looks at the Church of Latter Day Saints moral and financial bankrolling of the Prop 8 effort.

“This is not a gay film,” says director Reed Cowan. “This film is an examination of faith, obedience and incursions into politics by religion.”

In a review of the documentary, Ankita Rao of the Religion News Service wrote, “Televised advertisements endorsed by the church urged the public to preserve traditional families. Church leaders warned that same-sex marriages ruin society and endanger souls and mobilized their congregations accordingly.”

So while we wait for the courts to catch up, we also have to wait for the voters, too. The Haas Jr.Foundation released a report this week by NYU political scientist Patrick J. Egan. Egan examined more than ten years’ worth of pre-election polling data from the 33 states that passed anti-gay marriage initiatives.

Egan found that pre-election polling numbers on gay marriage bans woefully underestimate the bans’ popularity.

In the five states that have legalized gay marriage–Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont–it was accomplished through the state legislatures, not through direct voter sentiment.

District Judge Vaughn R. Walker hasn’t given a timeline for his verdict but it’s likely to be issued this summer.

The whole trial itself–with its bizarre pairing of Ted Olson and Davis Boies, who faced off in Bush v. Gore, the specious arguments arguing marriage is all about procreation, and the possible of huge change–would make a great 2011 summer blockbuster.

Dustin Lance Black, who won as Oscar for his screenplay for Milk, has been involved in the California case. Black gave a moving Oscar speech that discussed the challenges of growing up gay in the Mormon Church. Variety reports that Black says a screenplay about the Prop 8 case is “not out of the question.”

Here’s hoping this story has a happy ending where, as Eminem says, everyone gets the “chance to be equally miserable.”