Actress Susan Sarandon is among the supporters of gay marriage on the Human Rights Campaign’s website. Photograph by David Shankbone.

I met a young man on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich, Conn. who asked me if I had a moment for gay rights. Why yes, I do, I said as I presented him with my card for “The Games Men Play” series and blog and told him about “Water Music,” the first novel in the series, about four gay athletes and how their professional rivalries color their personal relationships with one another.

I’m sure my sales pitch was not what he wanted to hear as he had one of his own. He was trying to sign up people for the Human Rights Campaign, which seeks equal rights for the LGBT community. Right now, he said, it’s still legal in 29 states to fire someone on the basis of homosexual orientation. That’s appalling, I thought.

But I didn’t sign his petition. As a journalist, I’ve never joined any group, and anyway, I don’t like handing over personal information on the street. Nor do I like those for “whatever amount you want to give per month” approaches. Those amounts have a way of mounting up.

I could see he was disappointed, and, having faced enough rejection in my life, I went back to him and told him I would go him one better. I would blog about what he told me and put up the HRC website.

And so I have.