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11/15 Attendance Totals
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world rallied for equal rights on 11/15. Check out the table below to find out how many people turned out
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Dec 8 2008, 2:51 PM EST by
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LUTN Flier Totals
How many fliers did you hand out 12/20? How many conversations about equality did you have? Let us know in the table below, then share your
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Jan 8 2009, 6:36 PM EST by
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Pomona
of Interest on JoinTheImpact! California - Join the Impact Attendance Totals (How Many Attended in Your City) - Join the Impact
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Jun 30 2009, 8:21 PM EDT by
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JOIN THE IMPACT: Unite For LGBTQ Equality!
Needed! Sign up to be an organizer in your city or state! Order a JointheImpact T-shirt Available
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Jul 3 2009, 4:47 PM EDT by
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Santa Cruz County
-- volunteer to be the organizer for your city! NEED HELP? ==> If you do not know how to add (or edit) a page, visit the Wetpaint FAQs
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Jun 30 2009, 8:30 PM EDT by
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Light Up the Night Stories
How did you spend 12/20? Share your stories and anecdotes below, then add your flier distribution totals , photos and videos ! Click
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Jan 6 2009, 10:53 PM EST by
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What will your sign say?
"When they come for your civil rights, I'll stand up for you too."
If my wife is well enough to attend:
"Another straight couple for equality."
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Posted:
Nov 12 2008, 10:26 PM EST by
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Post your ideas for what we should do next to keep up the momentum!q
I loved the somewhat instant call for a national protest and I believe that the message was sent quite well. There are a lot of homosexual people in America and we aren't going to sit by and watch our rights get stripped away after we have worked so hard to obtain them. I love the postcard idea as well as the Day Without Gay protest planned. In DC, where I live, there is also a Facebook protest asking averyone to wear t-shirts that say "I Cannot Support Proposition 8" on a certain day. These are all great ideas, but they are not large impact ideas. How will America know who has sent postcards and how many were sent? How will America know if you wore a t-shirt under your suit at work?
We need to be visible as one UNITED group. The protests and marches were great because they were organized all over the country for the same time and day. WE NEED MORE OF THIS! The world needs to see just how many of us there are. We need to be in the news and on TV every day so that no one forgets, gives up, or quits caring about the fact that gays in America are still second-class citizens.
I propose that we plan another nation-wide, or even world-wide protest of epic proportions. What if every gay couple dressed in their wedding best and were surrounded by their friends and family dressed as bridesmaids and groomsmen and then attended MASSIVE CEREMONIES that would be staged in public high-traffic areas. And if there was a preacher with a megaphone and at the same time, all over the world, a "wedding" was performed for 100,000's of homosexuals, the media coverage would be phenomenal! Think about it...
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Posted:
Nov 19 2008, 1:56 PM EST by
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What the HELL SAN FRAN?
One thing that should be taken into big consideration was that there was not one focal point of a rally in the Bay Area - the entire Bay Area was spread out to many different rallies, including San Jose, Oakland, Walnut Creek, San Rafael, Pittsburgh, Napa, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and so on. If you total the attendance of all of these events, you at least get 15,000. Plus, it may be argued that the first protest of a metropolitan area may be the biggest in the beginning of a larger civil rights movement (of which this is now becoming), and San Francisco served as the focal point of an impromptu protest march organized in less than two days with nothing else happening in the bay area at that time, getting 25,000 to march. I personally think that SF and the Bay Area did very well on Saturday, but the big message is that we can't afford to get complacent at any point of this rally, and more importantly, we need to now come out with a very organized and widely-followed plan of attack so that the entire gay community can come together and *really* make our voices heard the likes we have yet to see.
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Posted:
Nov 16 2008, 12:04 PM EST by
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Support in Fremont?
Yes...I'm in Fremont, CA too. Do you really think we could get that many people to attend? We still haven't decided where we're going this morning. I'd like to stay here in Fremont, but given what happened earlier in the week, I'm afraid we'd be the only ones there! Anyhow, your plan sounds good to me, but it may be a bit too late to organize something like that for today. Maybe the next one? Let's see how many others are out there and are willing to participate. Anyone else interested?!
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Nov 15 2008, 12:31 PM EST by
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Ideas for WHEN we should march on Washington
Hi, I noticed that it said for the march to be around Feb or March of 09. I just want to point out that if that is the case, I'm sure a lot of people won't be able to make it, my family and I included. That just does not give enough time to gather up the necessary funds, especially so soon after the holidays, or to put in for vacation time at work. I realize that we want this to take off as fast as possible, but I think it would be better to postpone it like 6 months or so, to allow for more people to be there. If it goes on in February, it's going to be cold, lol. If only 500,000 people show up, compared to maybe a couple million if we have it during the summer or early fall next year. Wouldn't that be better overall? The first time I heard about this plan to march on Washington, I was so excited. I told my husband, "I totally want to be there, that would be soo much fun." I will be so sad if I cannot make it.
Don't think about it as us wasting time from now until next summer. We should be having marches and protests like once a month or every 2 weeks in our cities. The more people that we get to support us in the smaller rallies and protests around the Country, the more people there will be in Washington. If we continue to have gatherings, then we can not only gather supporters for our overall cause, but we can also spread the word about the "Grand Finale" of protests, and possibly even help to raise money to get people there who wouldn't be able to afford it on their own.
Just my little suggestion. My husband and I both would really love to go to Washington and help support this cause.
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Nov 18 2008, 7:54 PM EST by
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Can we have a March?
We really like the idea of the march taking place at the same time in other locations for those who can't make it to DC. We live in a fairly large city (Tucson,AZ) and when it comes to LGBT events/issues, Tucson never wants to do much. Does anybody have suggestions on how to get Tucson, AZ more involved in our community for the many people like us for whatever reason who cannot attend the DC march? What can we do to help make this national event a success? If there are any join the impact members in Tucson, AZ who cannot make it to the DC march and are planning to attend Tucson's Pride in the Desert that weekend, maybe we can meet up at Pride fest.
Tomi and Cara
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Jul 5 2009, 1:47 PM EDT by
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What HAPPENED???
I know that s**t happens and maybe Dec 20th wasn't the best time to plan the LUTN event for but I still feel that, while everybody's heart is in the right place, there's a general lack of deep commitment. Oh, everybody talks a good fight and they're all for equal rights but you gotta get up off your duffs and be somewhere visible and in large enough numbers to show non-gays and anti-gays that you're serious about getting equal rights for yourselves and you're not going to go away and shut up about it till you get those rights! I applaud the people who participated last night in the LUTN event. I'm sure you would have been warmer at home - for those of you who braved the cold - and that many of you had to postpone other plans to participate in the event. But for the rest, you have to decide what your priorities are. It won't be easy to become visible advocates for your cause and sometimes it will be a hard road to travel. For those of you who think it's going to be a cakewalk, I'd suggest you go online and look up the Civil Rights Movement and see if you can find old tapes of what some of the blacks in the south had to face in their fight for equal rights so you can educate yourselves on just how hard and dangerous it was for them to get the rights they deserved. Nobody nowadays has to face attacks from vicious police dogs or getting hosed by fire-fighting apparatus or getting beaten by nasty cops with billy clubs. Hell, if you protest non-violently you won't even get tear-gassed like I and my fellow non-violent protesters were in the '60s! It's time to decide whether you want what you're being denied or the easy way out by putting up with the same-old-same-old. If you're not indignant with the discrimination you have to endure then you SHOULD be! Stand up and put everybody against your rights on notice that you're mad as hell and you're not effing gonna stand for it any more!
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Posted:
Dec 21 2008, 1:53 PM EST by
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in LA today
The LA Times reported it as 10,000 to 12,000. We had a staff member there shooting video of the handful of counter protesters. He said it seemed much smaller than the LA Times number, around 4,000 to 5,000, but I can't really say he is right or wrong on his guesstimate. One person on the scene said he was counting 50 people going by him every 40 seconds at one point as people arrived.
Bottom line, the LA event didn't hit the 40,000+ that was predicted, but it did gather a considerable response.
Our staff member also said he was very impressed with how well event organizers handled the counter protesters. There was a good sized group of event staff on hand specifically assigned to acting as a buffer to keep the attendees and counter protesters separated... and to keeping things peaceful. This was very good news to us. We've had many times where we felt we were putting our staff at risk sending them to events, and this was the first time ever a staff member reported back that there was a responsible sense of security.
One thing that was a little funny, though, is we heard that the counter protesters complained that there were so many event staff volunteers providing additional security that their counter protest banners and signs couldn't be seen. They said that there were so many event staff volunteers providing security that it actually blocked the crowd from being able to see them.
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Posted:
Nov 15 2008, 9:39 PM EST by
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LGBT Friednly Religious Communities
"I work in HIV and AIDS. Faith can be resource, support for SOME. This is a list of lgbt groups (support or gay friendly) within each denomination listed. Let's start by contacting them and starting a dialogue and inviting them. Leaders in each city find your local chapter if you have one. Stop the h8 against the religious NOW. Start with Stopping the anti Mormon H8. There are gay mormon chapters in SF and LA.
(Mormon) www.affirmation.org www.ldsfamilyfellowship.org (American Baptists) www.rainbowbaptists.org; www.wabaptists.org (Buddhism) www.gaybuddhist.org ( Disciples of Christ-Christian ) www.gladalliance.org; (Episcopal USA) www.integrityusa.org; (Evangelical Lutheran) www.goodsoil.org; www.lcna.org (Hinduism) www.glava108.org; (Islam)www.al-fatiha.org; (Judaism Conservative, Orthodox or Reformed) www.glbtjews.org (Methodist United) www.rmnetwork.org (Metropolitan Community- the whole church is welcoming and supports marriage of LGBT people) (Presbyterian Church USA) www.mlp.org; (Roman Catholic) www.dignityusa.org; (Seventh Day Adventist) www.sdakinship.org; (Unitarian Universaliist - Accepts LGBT people and performs marriages where legal. www.uua.org) (United Church of Christ- welcome LGBT people supports equal marriage, some bless gay marriages. www.ucccoalition.org; (Evangelicals) www.ecwr.org also check out www.religioustolerance.org Let's start working with those groups who voted against us, find the people who didn't and have them work within their groups to change them from the inside.
Thanks for listening. These groups are our friends. PS. also check out the podcast "Oh God I'm Gay" on Itunes. Done by an African American Lesbian where she talks to people on the intersection between sexuality and spirituality. Example: a Transgender Methodist Pastor. or www.uusf.org podcast done by a Gay Reverand of a UU church. "What is Marriage For"
Hugs River " Thanks for the links to the podcasts, I'm excited to listen to them. I found this one interesting as well: GayAgenda.com speaks with OUT Mormon Serena - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/James-Hipps/page/1. That interview made me seriously consider issues regarding gay Mormon LGBT people which I hadn't previously considered. There's also an interesting documentary on the Documentary Channel titled "Straight Acting" from 2006 where a Gay Mormon is struggling with church and sexuality through ---- oddly enough ---- Rugby. Personally, I got kinda bored when the sports talk got to be too much.
I do think religious hate is an improper and generalized term for what is happening. It's regrettable that when a dialogue about religion takes place, there isn't a term in place for exclusionary religions and thus all churches and religions are thus associated with the conversation, regardless of their friendliness or acceptance or whatever we want to call it toward LGBT people. A nice simple term that doesn't require a five page disclaimer...
But by ignoring the intolerance associated with evangelical and extreme/radical/whatever you want to call them religious people, we ignore the source of many of the problems - including the use of religion to further abuse LGBT youth by comments (often by their parents) such as: You are going to hell. God doesn't love homosexuals. You can't be gay and get to heaven.... etc... etc...
How do we create a dialogue about this without sounding like "religious hate" - even LGBT people think we are "hating" on religion? What should we do? What is your solution so it is not perceived as religious hate? How do we avoid our allies getting hit with "friendly-fire"?
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Jan 5 2009, 1:00 PM EST by
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Let's change PRIDE this year to EQUALITY
"yes, some of us not only look different and but also celebrate our diversity differently (unapologetic minority?). i think pride marches have done a lot because without us, lgbtq community didn't come this far. one of jti's mission is reaching out, educating the nation with visibility and awareness for true freedom of gender expression for all." fumi, PRIDE marches have done a lot--they have made epic contributions. You are absolutely right, the lgbtq community would not have ever come this far without them. I am all for educating the nation with visibility and awareness for true freedom of fender expression for all.
My concern was not so much about the aspects of gender expression but rather the "behavior" of the many different groups in PRIDE celebrations. People may want to celebrate their diversity differently, but sometimes those actions are just self-indulgent acting out. People acting like depraved idiots who then hide behind their "right" to do it, or pretend it is something more than it is.
I'm all for our incredibly diverse community to educate the nation with visibility, but I'm asking our members to think about exactly what kind of behavior you want to make visible. What really represents your true self to others, what you value, what rights and equality you expect to have, and how you expect to be perceived by others when you are demanding that equality. I am asking everyone to consider how their actions affect others and a movement that is ultimately larger than their own PRIDE day exploits.
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Jan 25 2009, 4:32 PM EST by
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I am very unhappy with the Obama team.
I think that President Obama and the members of Congress are well intentioned but that they are also politicians. If we want them to enact change that will benefit our community it is up to us to keep the pressure on. Email, write and phone the White House and your representatives. Attend protests. Participate in the Tell-Three Campaign. Contact your local elected officials. Write in to your newspapers. There are many ways to make an impact. Visibility is key!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/How_to_contact_senators.htm
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
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Posted:
Feb 4 2009, 5:56 AM EST by
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ANCHORAGE RALLY
Steging, your totally correct. THEY never think of us, I mean look at jointheimpact.com website, they time is not even on there!!! lol but i think everyone wants 930 so 930am it is. Someone should bring a fog horn to wake us all up!!! haha SO this means I will be there at 930am! Come join us. :)
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Posted:
Nov 14 2008, 1:38 AM EST by
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Why is Join the Impact involved with the Oscar Grant case?
I did not know that JTI was sponsoring anything with respect to Oscar Grant. I, however, have been invited by an African American gay group here in LA to attend a peaceful, candlelight vigil for him. I have encouraged others in a few of my LGBT groups to go to show their support. LGBT people should understand better than most how devestating police brutality can be for a community. Here in LA, the LAPD has been terrific during our rallies this time around, but I think many of us can remember a time when the police used to target LGBT people and there are probably many places where they still do. The Oscar Grant videos were shocking. I would like to show my support.
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Posted:
Jan 14 2009, 12:18 PM EST by
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why bother?
Why? Because it can no longer be a one issue fight. On the same day that Proposition 8 passed in California other battles were lost in Arizona, Arkansas and Florida.
Twenty nine states now have constitutional bans on gay marriage. Forty eight states ban it by statute. We have no federal protection from employment or housing discrimination. The gay community is not covered under federal hate crime law. Gays and lesbians cannot serve their country openly in the military. In so many ways we are treated as second class, if you will only open your eyes to see. This cannot continue.
To be heard we must be seen.
It is time. Equality can't wait.
http://itistimenow.wordpress.com/
Posted:
Nov 13 2008, 6:22 PM EST by
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