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How did you spend 12/20? Share your stories and anecdotes below, then add your flier distribution totals, photos and videos!

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Herbwoman		 orlando-winter park somewhere between 100 - 125 showed,not anywhere near the confirmed or maybe numbers,the speakers and faith based leaders were exceptional,motivating and inspiring,but if our community really, and obviously so, will not take this fight of our lives seriously,then the right wing fundies WIN,and it is back to the old closet for all of us. SHAME for those who are unwilling to to stand up, this is 196 were confirmed and 302 maybe on jointhe impact face book, and we did not even get all the confirmed. SHAME

We may not have had the promised number, but thanks to last night's vigil, I now have more hope than ever before. I met two ladies who live less than 10 miles from me in our town on the east coast. The three of us are so excited to start working in our community in Brevard County.
Jessie
lilbuddy00		 Albuquerque
New Mexico		 Had a total of 32 before the walk to Civic Plaza.. Maybe 18 when we got to Civic Plaza. Was a very enjoyable gathering. Thanks to everyone for your support.. even the religous dude who wanted to walk and light a candle with us!
Marilyn
dominodoh		 Cerritos
California		 Great crew! Thanks everyone. Got lots of signatures to Repeal Prop H8. Mall security moved us a few times, but we kept on it.
DustinDeckard Wichita, KS There was a grand total of three of us who made it out tonight. The temperature was 10 degrees and wind chill made it feel -5*. However, we handed out a good amount of fliers and, thanks to the miracle of press releases, there were two camera crews out to get interviews and we were on two local TV stations for the 10 o clock news. Although I wish more people from Wichita would have braved the cold, I'm satisfied with the night's event. I got a lot of emails and supportive phone calls telling me that people would be lighting a candle in their living room and talking about the issue. My favorite story was from my friend Crissy, who told me that her two sons (6 and 13) and herself had a candlelit conversation about the importance of love. The idea of 6 and 13 year old children being accepting of my homosexuality in Kansas of all places gives me so much hope.
jtimelissa, organizer Todos Santos Plaza, Concord, CA My aunt and 2 of her friends wanted to have a local vigil. They also participated in day w/out a gay by refraining from money spending. I arranged the location, put info on the JTI website, and people showed up. Peggy presented my message to the participants. There were 11 people total. I am so proud of my aunt and her friends and the several others who showed up in this community near where I grew up.
BMacKenzie Santa Cruz, CA We had several hundred people show up, really lucked out with the beautiful weather!!. We were lucky to get members of the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus to give us an appropriate musical send off to our 40 minute procession. Due to our hardworking team of volunteers we had some pretty great stuff:

Excellent media coverage,

http://www.ksbw.com/video/18327977/?taf=mty

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_11280266

a successful food drive, great speakers, elected officials, beautiful hand painted rainbow cups for the candles and powerful flyers/imagery (which even made it to the national JTI site for official download). What a team!!! Thanks Guys and Gals!!
Toby_Adams Roseville, CA We had about 20-25 people show up and handed out about 250 flyers. With only a few days notice in our conservative rural area that is a great crowd! Most of the comments we got were supportive, and when we sang our "Equality Carols" we even got crowds of shoppers watching us, clapping, and offering cash donations (which went to the food bank).

One of the best things is that people found out about our event from so many different sources: Facebook links, Marriage Equality USA email blast, the EQCA website, the "find events in your city" link on Joint The Impact, through my church newsletter, and from friends. The only really sad thing is that all of the great pictures of the event were taken on my Blackberry and somehow got wiped out when I tried to download them, so I have no visual record. We did not try to get any news coverage.
Jessica_ Eugene, Oregon One other person showed up. Several dozen people going in for the ballet saw us, and had various reactions from smiles to confused stares. Two people asked questions and took fliers, and a few others made friendly comments. Not a rousing success, but not a total failure.

It was my first time organizing, I didn't know anything about how to put something like this together, and I ended up doing it on short notice when I worked out that the group doing the previous rally wasn't going to put this one together. I learned a lot about who to contact, what planning needs to be done, and how to put things like this together. And we got something accomplished.
DougMS Dover, DE Fifteen people braved the cold evening to stand with flags, signs and candles to witness for marriage equality. The passing motorists were positive, many sounding their horns in solidarity. A statewide daily newspaper covered us: see the Delaware page, http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Delaware. We stuck it out for an hour and a half and left feeling we had made some difference.
ahakes Charlottesville, VA There were about 15 of us. We had candles, flyers, a flag, a guitar, and sang secular Christmas carols (Deck the hallls type stuff). It wasn't a great turnout, and there weren't a lot of spectators, but we got FABULOUS press. Our local NBC 29 took the time to interview a couple of us the afternoon before the event, came to the event and shot some footage, and gave it a full 2 minute story on the 6:00 news. Here's the link: NBC 29 news story
milliongaymarch Anaheim, CA Only 8 people showed up, but we stood there with our candles, people walking by reading our fliers which were put on our clothes, since Disney officials threatened to remove us if we handed them out. We had a number of people come up and ask what we were doing, which was great in having the conversations about our rights. Some people came up and said they liked my shirt and that they were on our side. It was very nice, even with the small number of people that showed up. We had 60 confirmed on the facebook page, and none of them showed up. The 8 that were there knew nothing about Join The Impact, they had just heard about the vigil through friends. That is the power of grassroots.
SwankyJohn San Diego, CA Despite the out of the way location we had at the Fashion Valley Mall we definitely reached a few people. I'm particularly amazed at the success of this demonstration on a national scale. My husband and I look forward to our continuing contributions to these demonstrations. Anyone up for a "kiss in" in Julian, CA? Just a thought.
MattFlanders New York, NY Around 300 marched from Herald Square to Times Square in the freezing cold, wearing white knots in solidarity. Along the way, thousands of fliers were distributed. At the peaceful gathering in Times Square, speakers from the community described how unfair and discriminatory laws affect them personally. Attendees were not silent. Perhaps it was their desire to keep warm or their need to express themselves. Throughout the night, spirited chanting broke out, but it was always peaceful. We had a few counter-protesters, but they were effectively ignored and went away. After the gathering, attendees took more fliers and continued to distribute them to passersby.
TomSawyerSF San Francisco, CA We had 800-1,000 People at Union Square. (Just saw the pictures on Flickr) The merchants were great and not only shut down the skating rink for the hour, but also provided sound and hung our banner you can see at
http://www.lightupthenightsf.com/message.html (or on Banner Designs here on JTI)
We gathered with candles between the rink and the Christmas tree for half an hour with peaceful chatter and guitar, then Carly Ozard came to the mike at 5:30 and delivered Silent Night, followed by words from Supervisor Bevan Dufty, announcements about Jan. 10 DOMA protest,
http://www.intheparade.com
and Courage Campaign. Connie Champagne then gave us a message of hope with a modified Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and we closed. There were interviews by all the local stations, Univision and several periodicals including http://www.trikone.org.
Too cold for Tshirts, but many had "second class" and "friend of second class citizen" taped to their jackets. :) There where flyers of many kinds handed out. A number of folks continued with a march around the square after 6. All in all it was a beautiful showing in the center of the busiest shopping district, and seemed to be generally well received. I should add I am not surprised this would go over well in San Francisco, but I'm filled with joy seeing it happen across the nation in so many places - especially Albuqueque where I am from. This is clearly a time of great energy and change for us all, and I am filled with hope.
ColeMachado Eureka, CA It is amazing reading the stories and seeing photos of people who organized events all over the state and country. Many of you I have spoken to either via email, JTI email, or phone over the last month. I am glad to be able to help in my position as a JTI Statewide Organizer.

My local event in Eureka, CA had a great turnout even while raining.
Our local newspaper the Times-Standard did a great story!

Prop. 8 protesters hold Eureka vigil

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11282288
Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard
kathryncleslie Boston, MA A blizzard hit Boston and dropped 1 foot of snow on us on Saturday! Happily, about 60 die-hards still showed up for the LUTN candlelight vigil. Thanks to all who attended! We passed out about 400 flyers to shoppers on Boylston and Newbury Streets.
Celeste San Francisco, CA On Dec. 20, 2008 from 5:30-6:30 p.m., San Francisco Union Square was very busy with traffic, shoppers, and vigilers. Best moments: meeting and thanking the vigil organizer; plus listening to a "shopper" explain the purpose of the vigil to a child. Least favorite moment: hearing and watching a cable car employee shout from his cable car "Yes on Prop. 8" then turn to his tourist to explain his comment.
James Oklahoma City, OK We had very cold weather in the mid-20s with sharp wind which of course played havoc with the candles, but being an oppressed minority we know how to be inventive.

There were 30-35 people particpating, maybe more.

FOX 25 TV News filmed and two weekly papers took pixs and quotes from participants
Sarah D Wausau, WI We had a very cold 8 degree night with snow and wind,and despite that 15 people from the community showed up to show their support. Being that weather very few people were around, but we passed out fliers to two people. Either way having an event like this in a town like Wausau was invigorating.
michael g Ventura, CA It was a cold evening for Ventura- but the spirits were warm and the attendees loving. It was great to see all the support in our city!This has always been a conservative area, but things are changing for the better!
Mrs. and Mrs. Brown Delano, Ca well i was out there on cecil ave with my led light candles with my wife LeaShanette, love her!! she froze her butt off, she has a medical issue and when its cold her hip hurts,so for her it was a hard thing to do. we were troopers.we stood there alone but together. we had a few people ask what we were doin. we told em.had 2 mormons come by and say they saw our candles and wondered what we were doin, so told them. gave them the 5 rights flyer. they read it asked if they could keep it i saidsure thats what its for and they went back to their car. sat there for like 15 minutes then drove away. some skaters at the skate park asked what we were doin. we told em. they said we support you and good luck with a raised fist in the air. it was sweet that these young guys supported us. made us feel good.nothing bad happened. that was it. wish more people in delano would come out to support. but maybe next time. oh yes i am planning to keep up with this even though all my my gay and lesbian friends in the area are still scared. i hope they will come to the next one. my wife and i will stand there together for every protest!!!
Ratliff's Selma, California We both had to work and could not make it to fresno so we decided on our breaks and lunches we would light our candle and stand there. we caught a lot of attention as eople entered the store. I wont mention the name. later i was asked about it and told them answered many questions and even found more support than i knew existed in the store. It was nice. We will continue no matter how we do it we show our support and pride.
Activist Tom Big Timber, MT On December 20, 2008 at 5pm, a candle light vigil was held in Big Timber for Gay and Lesbian equality. It was a small but diverse group of people that walked through downtown Big Timber in the -10 F temperature and constantly had to stop and relight their candles. But, the mood was festive because it was the Holidays and everyone believed in what they were doing. All across the country, people participated in the same vigil in malls, downtowns and wherever they felt they would have an impact. Here in Big Timber, five brave souls walked: a straight pastor, a local lesbian, a local bisexual man, the sister of the organizer and Tom Minette, the gay man who set up the event. Tom was born here and is part of the extended Becken family, he currently lives in Jacksonville, Florida but visits Big Timber a few times a year. Tom set up the event believing that even in small towns there are folks who believe in the dignity and equality of all people. Montana has a legacy attitude of “Live and Let Live” and that can be applied to those who are of a different sexual orientation. The Montana legislature has twice almost passed non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation. Every two years, gay and lesbian Montanans hope that this would be the session that the state recognizes their contribution to the fabric of the state of Montana. But, so far they are still waiting. I wrote the above article and the local paper in my home town of 1,700 people printed it verbatim. Wow, I thought if they even printed it, they would have edited down to two sentences. I guess this is a sign of progress. It was just published today since it is a weekly. We'll see what reactions the town has.
karensaysFno Fresno, CA About 20-30 people gathered at the Riverpark shopping center in Fresno on December 20th. Light Up The Night was a beautiful event and i believe we passed out about 100-200 fliers. The candles looked beautiful and the fliers were a great way to reach a lot of people with our message. The best conversations were had with the youth. Almost all were supportive of our cause and took fliers, some even joined us. Although not of voting age, a group of teenagers gave us a few “right on”s and an “Oh yeah, No on 8 don’t segregate!” Even while some parents passed us by or looked the other way, their children often took fliers and expressed some solidarity. My most interesting interaction came as I was leaving the event. A young boy who asked me what we were doing. Much to his mother’s disapproval, I told them we were lighting up the night for equality, in solidarity with the rights that were lost with the passage of prop 8 on November 4th. While practically dragging her son through the parking lot, she yelled back at me, “Man and a woman created this [referring to her son]! And they created you too!” Well duh lady! Anyway, it was refreshing to see that the youth of this generation are waking up and are aware of the problems. As my friend Jamie says, it will be our generation that will make change come to be and I have every faith that I will see these wrongs righted in my lifetime.
Shannon [evolveordissolve] Sacramento, CA A man working with the Courage Campaign [at least that's where he got his wonderful signs from] participated in gathering signatures for the petitions along with a lady at the "Milk + Love" event, which was a screening of "Milk" organized by the Courage Campaign at the Tower Theatre in downtown Sacramento. [Great choice of venue, by the way - BOYCOTT Century / Cinemark Theatres for donating money to Yes on 8! It's hard in this area to get away from Century Theatres since they pretty much have a monopoly, but Tower Theatre is a great location.] I participated with my parents and brother and saw "Milk" before heading downtown to the Westfield Shopping Centre. I had "2nd Class Citizen" taped to my chest, and as I was eating a very [!] quick dinner in the mall's food court before the vigil outside, a 20-something guy with a 20-something lady came over to the table my mom and I were at and the guy asked me, "Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you, but are you protesteing Proposition 8?" I told him I was, and he thanked me more than once and shook my hand in an extremely serious and touching way. The lady thanked me too. When I got to the vigil, I spoke with some local activists about recent events, including Obama's choice of Rick Warren, and spoke with a member of the California Progressive Caucus. There were about 75 people - the number fluctuated and it was cold, but there were still at least 50 people when we left at 6:30-7. A few carks drove by and honked/waved with thumbs-up, which was inspiring given the ridiculously conservative atmosphere of the Sacramento region. [See "Prop 8" "Citrus Heights" on YouTube.] The best part of the night for me was when a guy about my age [early 20s] came up to me and asked about what was going on. He's from Ohio and was visiting CA. Although he identifies as a gay man, he told me he didn't really believe in same-sex marriage because of traditional values arguments; however, when I was able to explain to him why it's a civil rights issue, and how LGBTQ people are denied equal protection under the law, and how queer people suffer because of not having equal protections such as marriage [I gave him the example of the woman in Florida whose partner died in the hospital before she could say goodbye] - when I explained all this to him, with the help of a few other people at the vigil, he said, amazed, that no one had ever explained it to him like that before and that it made sense. He thanked me, and I believe he walked away with a new understanding of the issue and of the marriage equality movement. It was grassroots change in action.
Meredith Black Minneapolis, MN It was a frigid cold evening, single degree temps with a strong negative wind chill, and a bunch of snow had been dumped on us just a few hours before, but the crowd was out in full force to watch the holidazzle parade. My best friend and I bundled up and joined a group of approx. 10 people who were walking up and down Nicollet. They had candles, fliers, signs and big hearts. We did our best to hand out fliers and candles to any spectators willing to take their hands out of their pockets and educated a few folks along the way. The severe cold and nasty weather kept many people from attending the vigil which was sad, but the people we joined up with treated us as family. I look forward to seeing them again at the next protest or rally on the 10th. As an ally to the GLBTQ community, losing feeling in my extremities to support such an important event was the least I could do, and I plan to attend as many future events as I can.





































































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pozinprov gay on gay hate (page: 1 2 3 4) 72 Aug 4 2009, 6:13 PM EDT by sliquecallahan
Thread started: Nov 26 2008, 12:16 PM EST  Watch
Hi,

I keep hearing about the gay community and all the unity we need, how much we need to send messages to California or Washington about how we deserve equal treatment. But as a gay man living with HIV who experiences ostracism and slurs from the gay community on a regular basis, I'm hard pressed to see why I should join in.
Every time I go into some kind of gay chat room, whether from gay websites or just in more mainstream media, I see numerous erroneous and dismissive, even ostracizing language toward anyone with HIV. On a regular basis, it gets back to me through gay social contacts that I'm diseased and should not be bothered with; most of this is due to word of mouth from one gay man to another. I'm told that I'm not clean, I’m diseased and should not exist, or at the very least, should just "be" something else.
This would probably be a little more palatable if my disease was not what drove the gay rights movement as far as it's come in the last quarter century. I mean, you do realize that it's due to those of us who fell ill that gay rights got more visibility. Yet, despite my own health, future and career being sacrificed, along with the lives of so many friends of mine, and possibly your friends too, we are the bad guys.

Can you please tell me what your organization is doing about the gay "community's" own participation in ostracism of its own members? Is this the way a community struggling to show compassion and unity treats its own? If so, can you tell me why you deserve equal rights when members of your own community are treated like garbage? Is this the "equality" that I have to look forward to?
Joseph Yungk
Providence, RI
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Herbwoman What the HELL is the matter with you people!!! (page: 1 2) 30 Jan 2 2009, 3:39 AM EST by OmahaGayVillage
Thread started: Dec 22 2008, 5:39 PM EST  Watch
I'm about to piss some people off. But you know what? I have NO problem with that!
All I'm seeing here is whining and complaining. It's too cold for T-shirts. The food will be ignored when it comes time for voting. The LGBT community is divisive.

SO GODAMNED DEAL WITH IT!! Find a way to make things work!!

In the civil rights movement in the 60's people actually DIED fighting for their rights and you're complaining about cold WEATHER!! You bunch of panty-waisted WUSSES!!

The food will be ignored later? Maybe so BUT in newspaper and TV spots all over the country people are getting the idea that maybe not all of us LGBT people are deviants who want to have sex with their children!! Giving food to people in need is a GOOD thing whether it eventually helps us or not.

The LGBT community is divisive? You don't have to tell me twice. I'm a married bisexual woman who gets shit on because I have "heterosexual privilege". And instead of being grateful that I'm out there fighting with the L and the G, I get crap. But you know what?? It isn't EVERYONE that feels that way and the ones that do can go fuck themselves because MY rights are more important than petty bullshit bickering!!

People have been beaten, jailed, tear gassed and murdered because they dared to stand up for their rights. Are you going to just LAY there and TAKE this crap?? What the HELL is the matter with you that you won't stand up for YOUR OWN RIGHTS???

Think about it.





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tomsawyersf Oh My God How Much Do I Love Mrs. and Mrs. Brown? 10 Dec 25 2008, 9:29 PM EST by leatanya
Thread started: Dec 23 2008, 3:24 AM EST  Watch
Can I just say that? For real.
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