Join the Impact

In an effort to continue the conversation of equality, the JoinTheImpact team would like to provide you with a weekly set of “tools.” Each week, we will pick from the MANY websites, announcements, blog posts, videos, etc. that have sprung up, and let you know about them. Last week, we did this by providing a Thanksgiving Cornucopia of Knowledge. Here’s some more food for thought:

The NGLTF’s Creating Change Conference is Coming up and JoinTheImpact will be there! Creating Change is an amazing conference that personally changed my life when I was 19. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet with other members of the LGBTQ community and work toward equality! Creating Change offers many great scholarships to get you to this important conference. Please take a look at their site and find out how you can attend!

Marriage Equality USA Needs our help with a very important survey.

Our organization, Marriage Equality USA, has created an on-line survey to collect input on California’s Prop 8 campaign and the status of marriage equality in the other 49 states. We also a series of questions to help us evaluate public education strategies and messaging based on their level of effectiveness within their local communities. Finally, we’ve asked for personal stories that will not only allow us to better describe the impact of being denied the freedom to marry, but the harm that comes through these initiative and/or ballot measures processes.

Here is an AMAZING way to turn the ignorance of the Fred Phelps movement into outreach for the LGBTQ community: The Phelps-A-Thon
Here’s a great film that you could pass around from: http://www.loveisloveshortfilm.com/

We have a lot of quick updates and resource information that we hope you’ll peruse over your 4 day weekend (for those of you working on Black Friday and the weekend, thank you for braving the storm!) Read the rest of this entry »

How are those conversations going?

I must admit that even I haven’t had one a day since we gave out the call to action to have a respectful conversation every day with someone who thinks differently than I do about LGBT rights (which MAY have something to do with the fact that I’m always on email, the phone or in a meeting for JTI since all of this started). Read the rest of this entry »

We have added 3 very important updates to this site:

1. Events Calendar: This will tell you all of the NATIONAL events that JoinTheImpact is a part of
2. Other Events: This will be a place for local events. Our goal is to get out the word for important local events that help further the cause!
3. Letters from Readers: Our readers send us some AMAZING letters. We want to give them a voice as well. Please check back often for some great words of inspiration and understanding from our readers.

Recently, President Elect Barack Obama released his Civil Rights Agenda on Change.gov. Whether you agree with his election into office or not, his transparency and eagerness to communicate with the American people is a true testament to his grassroots ideals and fight for change that many voted for. This Civil Rights Agenda includes “Support for the LGBT Community” in the following ways:

• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes
• Fight Workplace Discrimination
• Support FULL Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples (Includes Repealing DOMA)
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
• Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell
• Expand Adoption Rights
• Promote HIV/AIDS Prevention

We are in the eye of this generation’s Civil Rights Movement and we cannot stop this momentum now! Barack Obama has laid out many great promises, but we need to pave the way for him to legislate on our behalf. Even Barack Obama makes promises for votes, so let’s take a moment to remind him of his promises and let him know that we will keep this movement going to hold him to his word and help him along the way. Because of this, while we have many initiatives on the Calendar to keep moving forward and fighting for equality, we want to squeeze something in that we ask for your immediate attention on. We feel that, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, it is time to say “thank you” and let President Elect Barack Obama know that we have read his promises and will do what it takes to help him follow through. As such, JoinTheImpact is teaming up with the Civil Rights Front’s Project Postcard Campaign.
Read the rest of this entry »

To everyone organizing and participating in Saturday’s INTERNATIONAL protest:

As Saturday’s events come closer, it’s time for that last minute check list to ensure that everything is covered:

1. Do you have permits? If you do not have permits yet, please work with your local LGBTQ organiziation to quickly obtain these. If you do not have a local LGBTQ organization, then please contact your local police and governement to get their help
2. Please be as transparent with the police as possible. If you, like many of us, have found that your event grew from 300 to 3000 overnight, don’t hesitate to tell the police about these new projections. They are there to protect you and shouldn’t be stretched thin.
3. Make sure you don’t bring anything that would be considered a weapon – I know this sounds like common sense, but few people realize that the sticks they use for their signs have to be no thicker than 1/4″ or else they are considered a weapon.
4. Do you have speakers? Every city is handling this differently and that is perfectly fine. If you want to have speakers but don’t yet, here are some suggestions: Local religious leaders that are also gay allies, local members of the media, local LGBTQ advocates, local radio personalities, you – are you the organizer? Then you should speak.
5. Find your protest location. Contact the local organizer if you wish to volunteer.
6. Organize your volunteers. Give everyone who you can manage a job to help you keep things moving. Gather emails (we will soon compile all of these with you).
7. Finally – I want to make sure that we are always always always focusing on peaceful demonstrations. Please remain respectful of your neighbors and reach across the aisle to our opponents (I’m sorry for that extremely trite phrase considering how it’s been hammered into our heads this election year). This is an amazing opportunity to continue the conversation and drive change. Please keep promoting peace, respect, and outreach.

There are always loose ends to tie up. Please utilize the resources made available to you at HERE, and those available to you from your local organizations joining in this movement!

Thanks!

The JoinTheImpact Team

Hello Organizers,

When we migrated to a new server, we lost some comments so I wanted to bring attention to one. Marriage Equality USA has created a Press Release that everyone can use on a local level to get out the word to local media. Please Please utilize this fantastic resource:

Comment:
We have a press release that can be sent to your local media – For a copy of it, please email marchforequalrights@gmail.com

This NEEDS to be sent out!!! It will help increase the impact!

Hello Organizers,

When we migrated to a new server, we lost some comments so I wanted to bring attention to one. Marriage Equality USA has created a Press Release that everyone can use on a local level to get out the word to local media. Please Please utilize this fantastic resource:

Comment:
We have a press release that can be sent to your local media – For a copy of it, please email marchforequalrights@gmail.com

This NEEDS to be sent out!!! It will help increase the impact!