Join the Impact

LOGO TO PARTIPCIPATE IN JOINTHEIMPACT.COM’S

“LIGHT UP THE NIGHT FOR EQUALITY” ON-AIR AND ONLINE ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2008

NEW YORK, NY – December 17, 2008 – The gay marriage debate continues across the United States. In response to JoinTheImpact.com’s “Light Up the Night for Equality,” LOGO will participate on-air and online in the nationwide candle light vigil occurring on December 20, 2008.

As members of the LGBT community and allies gather across the nation, LOGO will keep its audience up-to-date that evening with an “on-air candle” directing viewers to the latest news from 365gay.com, the online source for the latest LGBT news, opinion, video blogs and streaming video news. Updated news will be posted throughout the weekend, further supporting LOGO’s status as the ultimate aggregator of LGBT related content across all platforms: on-air, online, on mobile and on-demand.

LOGO continues to reach all various digital platforms on issues that affect the LGBT community including the recent “Day Without a Gay.” LOGO’s NewNowNext.com created a witty, but poignant viral video demonstrating what would happen if people called out “gay” at work in response to the nationwide “Day Without a Gay,” thus generating dialogue within the community and in the press. In addition, on-air efforts include “365Gay News,” LOGO’s half-hour weekly magazine-style LGBT news show, airing Thursdays at 7 PM ET/PT on LOGO and 365gay.com hosted by Emmy-award television journalist Ross Palombo. “365Gay News” has covered extensive issues related to LGBT rights including a recent special on Harvey Milk and political issues including gay marriage on its multiplatform brand “Road to Gay Marriage” on-air and on 365gay.com.

For more information on “Light Up the Night for Equality,” go to JointheImpact.com and for the latest in LGBT news and entertainment, go to 365gay.com and LOGOonline.com.

On December 20, 2008, JointheImpact.com, the official organizers of the nationwide November 15 protests against California’s Proposition 8, have called all LGBTQ individuals and allies of the community to participate in a peaceful demonstration in local commercial district areas in congruence with their National Food Drive for Equality.

LOGO TO PARTIPCIPATE IN JOINTHEIMPACT.COM’S

“LIGHT UP THE NIGHT FOR EQUALITY” ON-AIR AND ONLINE ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2008

NEW YORK, NY – December 17, 2008 – The gay marriage debate continues across the United States. In response to JoinTheImpact.com’s “Light Up the Night for Equality,” LOGO will participate on-air and online in the nationwide candle light vigil occurring on December 20, 2008.

As members of the LGBT community and allies gather across the nation, LOGO will keep its audience up-to-date that evening with an “on-air candle” directing viewers to the latest news from 365gay.com, the online source for the latest LGBT news, opinion, video blogs and streaming video news. Updated news will be posted throughout the weekend, further supporting LOGO’s status as the ultimate aggregator of LGBT related content across all platforms: on-air, online, on mobile and on-demand.

LOGO continues to reach all various digital platforms on issues that affect the LGBT community including the recent “Day Without a Gay.” LOGO’s NewNowNext.com created a witty, but poignant viral video demonstrating what would happen if people called out “gay” at work in response to the nationwide “Day Without a Gay,” thus generating dialogue within the community and in the press. In addition, on-air efforts include “365Gay News,” LOGO’s half-hour weekly magazine-style LGBT news show, airing Thursdays at 7 PM ET/PT on LOGO and 365gay.com hosted by Emmy-award television journalist Ross Palombo. “365Gay News” has covered extensive issues related to LGBT rights including a recent special on Harvey Milk and political issues including gay marriage on its multiplatform brand “Road to Gay Marriage” on-air and on 365gay.com.

For more information on “Light Up the Night for Equality,” go to JointheImpact.com and for the latest in LGBT news and entertainment, go to 365gay.com and LOGOonline.com.

On December 20, 2008, JointheImpact.com, the official organizers of the nationwide November 15 protests against California’s Proposition 8, have called all LGBTQ individuals and allies of the community to participate in a peaceful demonstration in local commercial district areas in congruence with their National Food Drive for Equality.

In just a few days, our community will join together once more to make an IMPACT this Holiday season. December 20th’s Light up the Night for Equal Rights event will be HUGE. Just like on November 15th, we have cities from all around the country and the world joining together to spread the message of equal rights. Light up the Night is an amazing opportunity to build allies and bridge the gap of understanding for those that oppose us.* Those involved will come together in vigil, to honor the rights lost to Proposition 8 and the rights still nonexistent to 1 in 10 U.S. citizens. On November 15th, we took to the streets. In a holiday twist, we ask that you take to your commercial shopping centers and reach out to people by the thousands.

There are still too many people in this country who do not understand what it is we are fighting for. Too many people believe the slanderous rumors about our community. They believe that we want “special” rights, that we already have equal rights, or that we are being “greedy.” IT’S TIME THIS STOPS! These people do not hate us, they just do not understand us. Many of them have gay friends. Many of them have gay family members. What they are missing, is awareness. On December 20th, we will SHED LIGHT ON OUR MOVEMENT AND GIVE THE GIFT OF AWARENESS TO ALL!

Traditional protests require people to seek out the truth. They require massive groups of individuals coming together in one space to chant for rights and hear the words of like-minded speakers. On December 20th, we plan on covering more ground, and here are 5 simple tools to do this:

• Grab a candle, glow stick, or flashlight to stand out from the other shoppers
• Go to your city page and join a group that is already organizing, or volunteer to organize in your city
• Make or Buy a “2nd Class Citizen” t-shirt and show everyone the rights not afforded to the LGBTQ community
• Print out our “5 Rights Holiday Cards” and pass them out to shoppers. This is a great way of educating the masses on the exact legal protections that our government does not provide us.
• Put together White Knots to pass out to new formed allies

If you want to get the word out in your area, email out the PRESS RELEASE and pass out fliers.

*Light Up the Night for Equal Rights was an idea brought to us by one of our many members and something that the Join The Impact community embraced. Join The Impact is YOURS. We are meant to be a platform for your voice and your needs. When members approach us with ways to make an impact, we want to give everyone the power and platform to make a change!

On November 28th, 2008, we began the first annual LGBTQ Food Drive for Equality. Now, a week and a half later, we are on the way, but not quite there yet. We have about HALF of our cities from November 15th signed up to collect for the food drive and Light Up the Night for Equal Rights. WE NEED YOU’RE HELP.

The road to full equality is not going to be one that we drive through over night. Many of you know this. Some of you have been fighting for our equal rights for a lifetime. Many have been fighting for years. And a great deal of us felt the unavoidable spark to step up and fight the minute we saw the results for Prop 8. November 5th awoke a NATION and WORLD of activists! November 15th was our first display of visibility, but if it stops there, then we have accomplished nothing. If we are going to achieve full equality, then we need to unite again! And Again! And Again! We need to remain a united front until EVERY one of us is afforded the same protections under the law that 90% of our citizens enjoy. Since November 5th, some amazing organizations have gained and reignited their voices for equality. We are working with those organizations to ensure that our community has a constant avenue for action and outreach.

Our next two large events offer some great opportunities for our community to build bridges with those who do not understand us or our cause. We ask you to join us during the season of giving to provide food for those in need. Let us go above and beyond. Let us set aside our own struggles, our own needs, to demonstrate to the nation and the world the collective power of the LGBTQ community to be a force of betterment for all society. We will rise above the divisions to recognize that we are all human, we are all working to carve out a space for ourselves in the world, and we all want the same simple opportunities. We ask that you reach out to your local faith based organizations and work with them in this food drive. Reach out to voting districts that voted YES on Prop 8 and show them who we really are. ACTIONS speak LOUDER than WORDS.

Before Prop 8 passed, a great deal of propaganda swayed the movable middle. This propaganda played on people’s fears. It made people believe that we were asking for “special rights.” Take action now to assuage these fears and educate those who believe in these falsehoods. LET OUR ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN THEIR WORDS! This food drive has the opportunity to be hugely successful, but not without your help. Light Up the Night for Equal Rights gives us the chance to educate the nation about the supposed “special” rights we are fighting for: The right to keep a job regardless of sexual orientation, the right to fight for our country, the right to host our partner of years for US citizenship, the right to see our spouse in the hospital, the right to inherit the property of our spouse when they pass, the right to marriage, and so much more… We will make these BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS known on December 20th, and over and over again.

So LET’S STEP IT UP A NOTCH. Let’s get out there and collect food and get out the word for Light Up the Night. Here’s what you should do:

Step 1: Figure out who’s in charge or step up as the organizer–visit your city’s page
Step 2: Get a list of faith based food pantries in your area
Step 3: Figure out where you’re going to store the donations until 12/20
Step 4: Get a plan of action together for collecting/dropping off donations
Step 5: Track your success! Add your donation totals to this page

Tomorrows events will turn out over 1million people organizing across 300 cities in all 50 states and 10 countries world-wide! Please get the word out to all of your friends. This has grown beyond a national event – this is HISTORICAL! Read the Press Release Here…

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 Everyone! Thanks to the help of HostDango.com’s Web hosting services, we now have a lightening fast server and our site should not be bogged down by traffic anymore… unless we suddenly reach 2 million hits/day, and at that point, who would complain? Please thank them in anyway you can. They donated the server to us and are working hard to keep our site afloat amidst the amazing influx of traffic! I’ll have a page up shortly with ways that you can help thank the businesses that are very generously donating their time and services to this cause!

PLEASE NOTE the following changes:

• In our server transfer, we did lose a great deal of comments but have backed them up. We will work hard to create a comments page so that people can see all of the great things you have said in the past 3 days.
• Thanks to the generosity of WetPaint.com, we now have a contacts and locations Wiki for everyone to better organize their city. That is located here: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com
• Emails – Please know that we are responding to emails as fast as we can. If you have submitted an email or comment requesting a change of location/contacts or addition of either for protesting, please submit that request again at our new wiki (But please check first to make sure the city isn’t already updated).
• You can use the wetpaint wiki to request changes and updates to contacts/locations in your area.
• Finally, you have made this all possible! I know our site has had some slow load times, but we honestly didn’t expect such a large reaction so fast! We peaked at 50K visitors/hour which are the numbers that crashed Friendster in its startup days! Please keep getting the word out and keep up the good work!

More to come soon! Thanks for EVERYTHING!

I’m sure all would agree that with the election of Barack Obama, this week
has been one of amazing wins in the world of equality! Still,
Tuesday night was one of bitter-sweet celebration, as we came together
to witness the first black man who will become our president, and
watched in sadness as Florida, Arizona, Arkansas, and California all
voted down equal rights for all citizens. Pendants and bloggers
alike have put their focus on Proposition 8, trying hard to find an
explanation for the anti-gay wins in the face of a huge pro-equality
event. Some have blamed the voters, others blame religious
groups, and even others blame the LGBTQ community for not being able to
mobilize on a larger enough scale. And you know what, there is
truth in every argument.

As a community, we have to admit to the fact that we are polarized
in various ways. Honestly, I’m not sure what community isn’t and
I believe that our polarization is proof to our humanity – we are no
different than anyone else, regardless of color, creed, or sexual
orientation. Still, our polarization has hindered us from
mobalizing as one strong voice. We all come together in the month
of June to celebrate Gay Pride, but few of us are even aware of why Gay
Pride exists. Gay Pride is a celebration to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of 1969.
Many say that the Gay Rights Movement began in 1969, which means that
we are still a young movement and have accomplished a great deal in
such a short amount of time. The generation that fought for us in
1969 deserves our gratitude and respect. This is a generation of
amazing people who fought for our ability to hold hands in the street,
to speak out against hate, to dance to our own “thumpa thump”, witness
television shows with a queer cast, and come together in the streets
celebrating for an entire month! This is the generation that
opened the doors for us to even have a conversation about gay marriage,
and this is the generation that deserves our help and our voices
now. On June 27th, 1969, this generation came together in
protest, jumping from closets, taking to the streets, and mobilizing in
ways this country had never seen before! And what happened?
Read the rest of this entry »