Our San Francisco chapter of "A Common Bond" [support group for gay/lesbian former JWs] has gone to several District Conventions, however, not to picket them. That is, we didn't throw "pot-shots" at them/their teachings or walk with signs denouncing them. We merely set up two vehicles, one attended, one unattended, with signs advertising our group's existence for any gay/lesbian JWs desiring support. The signs referenced a local phone number and our website.
The attended vehicle was on the side with mimimal [i.e., next to none] JW pedestrian traffic and the unattended one on the side that had heavy JW pedestrian traffic. The unattended vehicle had fliers on the windows for those who had interest. [Most of the fliers would be taken one-by-one from the time before the morning session start to the return after lunch, at which point we would leave the location.] JWs using the east approach to the parking lot easily saw both vehicles.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Cow Palace where the San Francisco Bay Area DCs are usually held, it's on Geneva Avenue --- a very wide thoroughfare. The sidewalk on the Cow Palace side of Geneva [where our unattended vehicle was] has heavy JW pedestrian traffic as the JWs go to and from McDonalds for breaks. The opposite side [where our attended vehicle was] has very little JW pedestrian traffic. So, a JW would literally have to, in most instances, go out of his/her way to get physically near to us. We did this to not be "in their face". Our sole purpose was to be of visible support to those in need.
Here's a link with pictures giving you an idea of our activity: http://www.gayxjw.org/streetwork.html [We didn't make a showing for this past summer's Convention.]
A humorous anecdote occurred one year. There was an elder from a local congregation who was friendly to our group's Webmaster, Jim Moon. Jim being in the ocean cargo transportation business would occasionally transact business with the elder. The elder was in the Organization for his family, he no longer plugged into the belief system. He relayed that one day, during the announcements, an elder gave the warning: "Brothers, there are homosexual apostates here passing our apostate literature." Firstly, we weren't "here". We did not set foot in the Cow Palace. Secondly, we were not passing out apostate literature. People actively took our fliers off the unattended vehicle if they wanted them, i.e., we did not pass them out. Can we spell "paranoia"? Anyway, they shot themselves in the foot with that platform statement. Prior to that, we were known to those who'd either walked by the unattended vehicle or saw us accross the street while on their way to McDonalds or to those who'd approached the parking lot from the east direction of Geneva thereby seeing either of our vehicles. Those approaching from the west direction of Geneva needed to turn into the parking lot far before being able to see us. So, their paranoid statement instantly made our presence known to all in attendance. Bravo, JWs!
