Subscribe to Breaking NewsBalliett: Light Up the Night vigil to fight hate
Tomorrow, 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.
Amy Balliett is the founder of JointheImpact.com.
Someone needs to put an end to these poorly planned and poorly conceived ideas. We’ve taken what was a great start and trivialized it to the point that no one even remembers the real demonstrations!!!!
I don’t agree with Trace — not at all.
LUTN is extremely important. We now have the unfortunate, but very necessary, task to creatively, doggedly, persistently, and self-respectingly protest the choice of Rick Warren as well. This is very much intertwined with Prop. 8, as Rick Warren was a prominent Prop. 8 supporter — although he hadn’t received much attention for his role in Prop. 8. Nor has he received much attention for his other incredibly offensive statements and actions.
Until now.
The Rick Warren debacle may be another opportunity to do a great deal of educating, and changing of minds.
To Amy Balliett: Brava. You’re inevitably going to encounter cynics and critics (of uncertain motivation) like Trace, but, take it from an older guy, with I think a reasonable accumulation of perspective on both the arc of history, and effecting change: You are doing fantastically good stuff. As the kids say: You rock. – Greg
Greg, let me know on Sunday what you think about the event. Atlanta is a city of 5 million people with one of the largest gay populations in the country. No one knows anything about this. There will be next to nill participation.
Trace is right.
Join the Impact really was able to get the people out against Prop 8 relatively fast. However the Day without a Gay was nothing but a flop.
I am relatively “plugged in” when it comes to knowledge of gay events of this kind of nature and I haven’t heard about it until 15 minutes ago.
And as much as I admire what Join the Impact has been capable of doing, far more than gay organizations, constructive criticism is necessary. Trace, is the first to praise and to criticize because she wants our community to progress and prosper.
Planning and mass notification of events is kinda necessary to get people to show up.
Rodney, why is it so difficult to see this?
There was a demonstration held in Atlanta last weekend by a subsidiary of the same group that is holding this event. They demonstrated in front of Lenox and Phips Malls. They had all of about 10 people show up. WSB/TV 2 showed up to cover the event and no matter how careful their camera shots were, it still showed that NO ONE SHOWED UP. It looked so bad that I’m certain it made everyone look like fools to the community at large.
This coming year is the anniversary of Stonewall. Stonewall is the true beginning. If we want something that has a “real” impact, we need to have people start planning for a Remember Stonewall event.
What Join the Impact did with the first rally was truly amazing. Those that post on here regularly will know that I praised the organizers for doing something that no mainstream gay group has been able to do for decades. Don’t let or allow these ill formed events tarnish what was such a promising start.
(P.S. – Trace is a He. )
Hi Everyone,
Amy of JoinTheImpact here. I appreciate your thoughts on this, but one HUGE thing to point out is that the success of November 15th relied largely on college students stepping up to organize. We knew that this would be an issue during the Holidays with college break, but also knew that it was extremely important to reach out to people during the holidays. That is why the goal of this event was not to have 1 million people out in the streets protesting, it was instead to reach 1 million people and educate them about our struggle. So far, we are very much on track for exceeding that goal.
Light Up the Night has been advertised for over a month now with press from many papers, blogs, and even mailing blasts from the Courage Campaign, LOGO, MEUSA, and the HRC. If you have not heard about it in your city, then I highly encourage you to go to our website and sign up to organize the next event. In the 132 cities where organizers were getting out the word, hundreds and thousands of people have shown up. If you’re in a city where nothing happened, then that shows even more that the college aged generation is stepping up and organizing in your area. Rather than criticize, I ask that you share your knowledge, experience, and wisdom. This ensures that every event we have is successful. Every organizer volunteers their time, energy, and even money (printing flyers & getting permits) to put together these events. These people are working extremely hard and many are first timers. Your input would be greatly appreciated to ensure that each event is better than the last.
Today’s goal is on track toward full achievement. With 1 million people reached, we can strengthen our base and have many more people attend the January 10th National DOMA protest (which has been advertised since November 15th). Please check JoinTheImpact.com for updates and information about future events. That will ensure that you aren’t out of the loop in the future. Of course, we will continue working with 365Gay.com and many other blogs, magazines, and news sources to get out the word as well.
Thanks!
Amy
Amy, why not plan something that will really have an impact nationwide and worldwide when millions of people watch Warren deliver the invocation. Surely more people will be reached during that time than during a protest done on later date.
I disagree with the naysayers. Sometimes we don’t know what an impact an action will have til much later. I did not go to work on Day Without A Gay, and it wasn’t until a week later that a colleague came up to me and said she noticed I was gone. She was supportive of me. This was a “Christian,” and I had no idea how she felt until my participation in that action. Just my being out opened up a dialogue with supporters I didn’t even know where there. She even argued with two other “Christians” at the lunch table. And, I’m a teacher. I work in a high school, and my job is not protected.
We are at the point where we are working to change hearts and minds one at a time. It is a slow process. (If it weren’t, and media blitzes had any effect, we’d all have equal rights in this country already.)
Clearly the Warren invite shows that Obama simply does not get it. At least his protestations show it. Same with Warren. How he can think his comments on gay and lesbian marriage are civil is beyond me.
Right now we need to do all we can with regular, everyday people, and these actions are doing that.
Thanks Beth, that is exactly the kind of stories we need to hear, here.
Now remember the protest against Warren is for BLACK ARM BANDS, from 12-3PM EST (adjust for your area). Quiet, non-disruptive but very very VISIBLE…and could engender lots of discussions.
This was proposed by a minister himself who states it is equivalent to the display worn by our miliatry on Good Friday. and during state funerals as a mark of supreme sadness on the occasion.
Let’s see ONE MILLION people were reached directly as per reports…
I would call that effective, but since HRC clains 900,000 members I guess you think they are more effective.
HERE is report:
Volunteers in cities across the US took to their malls, streets and other commercial area to reach others with the message that laws do NOT treat all people equally. Our preliminary numbers show that by having conversations and passing out the 5 Rights cards that the goal of reaching 1 million people was accomplished!
Congratulations!
Thanks Lucy,
There are many grassroots orgs planning events for Rick Warren and the inauguration. In an effort not to split the community, I think it’s important that these orgs continue their planning and JTI lend support to them rather than us coming up with our own event. Some great ideas have been put out there so far. My favorite (and the one I hope that occurs) is to have every gay person in the audience stand up and hold up rainbow flags during the event. And have a huge group in the back hold up a gigantic rainbow flag. I think it’s the best way to protest Rick Warren without the country thinking that we are protesting or being rude to Obama. The last thing we want to do is make the movable middle think that we are the bad guys here. What are your thoughts on this?
Amy
Hi Amy,
I’m glad to know that there are events
being planned for the inauguration because our visibility will reach more people during that time. I like your idea but I don’t know, to me it’s lacking something, it doesn’t fully communicate what we are currently feeling. The rainbow flag besides being a symbol of our community also symbolizes to many outside of it festivity because they associate it manly with our annual pride parades. And if I understood you correctly we want to reach those outside our community and let them know what’s going on with us. Our presence during the inauguration will be a solely visual one I agree with you on that, so to me that visual representation should be one that first is one easily recognized by all and that’s why I like your flag idea. But it should also make it clear to those attending and viewing the event that we are a group of people that have been basically deprived by our government of our humanity and we and our families are unprotected and vulnerable to all sorts of abuses. The flag needs to be there as our symbol but there needs to be something else included to represent our anguish. And it needs to be uniform so that confusing or unrecognizable messages are not the ones shown. I understand what you’re saying about being rude to Obama but I do believe we can find a way to make our true feelings heard without being offensive in manner.
I do caution you and everyone else who’s civilly fighting for our rights though that any show of protest or civil disobedience is going to be received and portrayed in a bad light by those that don’t want to see us triumph, no matter what type of considerations we take into account.
Please let us know soon what has been decided so that people are able to make their own arrangements and know what they will do once they get there as timing is very important. Amy I wish you and all the other organizers the best, you are doing a wonderful work and giving our movement an energy and a heart that it has been lacking for quite a few years.