Please honor Gerry Studds by pledging a donation to the LGBT or HIV/AIDS organization of your choice. CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE! We will keep a tally of how much has been pledged, and we will remind you to donate after the event.
FRED PHELPS PLEDGE-A-THON: OVER $1200 Pledged So Far!
Donate by # of Picketer or Length of Time The Picketers Stay. We'll keep track for you. Even if no picketers show up we encourage you to pledge a minimum donation in honor of Gerry Studds.
David: $10 per picketer up to $250Donate by # of Picketer or Length of Time The Picketers Stay. We'll keep track for you. Even if no picketers show up we encourage you to pledge a minimum donation in honor of Gerry Studds.
TheOpenSociety: up to $50 to AIDS Research
FieldsCornerGuy/MisterGoat: $5 per protestor, or $18 if none show up to FierceNY or AIDS Research
Janet444: A small donation
Smadin: $10 per picketer, up to $100
PeterPorcupine: $10 per picketer to LogCabin Republicans
Jim Caralis: $10 per protestor up to $250
Mark Snyder: $10 per hour to Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Gary: $500 donation to BAGLY
RollBiz: $2 per picketer from me. $20 minimum, $50 maximum.
DBang: $2 per protester pledge as a statement.
Laurel: $5 per Phelpser up to $50 to SpeakOut Boston
Chris: $2/Picketer- $20 min./$50 max. BAGLY
Some great organizations to donate to:
Boston Alliance of LGBT Youth
Mass. Trans Political Coalition
Greater Boston PFLAG
Boston Living Center
Community Servings
Can't Donate Money? How about time?
If you are low on cash make a pledge to donate volunteer hours to a worthy organization such as AIDS Action, The Boston Living Center, BAGLY, Community Servings, or others...
17 comments:
OK, so this dirtbag is going to come to my State to desecrate the memorial service for my Congressman,
whose spouse is already being screwed over by my government.....
Since we must have at least 300,000 gay people in the Commonwealth is there some way we can get just 10% of us (thirty thousand) to show up and shout down this idiot till he crawls out of town with his tail between his legs.
I am PISSED!
I'm pissed too... but here's the thing.
I don't want to have a huge angry protest at somebody's funeral - out of respect for his family and what not.
We need to think creatively about how best to respond to this.
Sometimes Fred's group doesn't even show up. Do we ignore them? Have a vigil instead of a protest? Wear the angel wings like they did at past funerals to counteract these folks? Alert the media/not alert the media?
Lets discuss.
This will be a state funeral, so won't the police be creating an honor guard? They could easily be positioned to keep the Phelps people walled off into a forlorn little group. The best thing would be to work with the police (is this possible?) on positioning. Also, it would be nice to create a parallel line of gay honor guard who do nothing more that stand within the ring of police with their back to Phelps, and help insulate those grieveing inside the Center from their hateful noise. No shouting. No signs. Just quiet respect.
This issue is also being discussed on bluemasgroup.
http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=3B411F013F45F324072E4A99AFF8D251?diaryId=4954
Well,
Why don't you make a fund raiser out of their protest? Let them come and the gay community will go out and get sponsors based on how long they stay and protest. Say $50 per 30 minutes. Then everyone can show up and just watch them make money for whatever cause you see fit for the funds. Wouldn't it be nice to do nothing but watch them make asses out of themselves and then collect money for them doing so?
The IRONY is they'd be helping our community, and not even know it.
The pledge idea is a good one. The logistics particularly the technical ones could be difficult to handle. We'd need to make sure people pledge and follow through on their pledges. A smaller organization like BAGLY would be a great one to benefit.
I've put up a front-page fundraiser thread on Blue Mass. Group. Let's see how high we can get the per-protester amount to go. We could be talking hundreds or even thousands of dollars, if enough people participate -- and if they really show up!
i dont think a memorial service is the appropriate place for a fundraiser. by all means, do this when the haters show up at the concon or other event. but not at a memorial. that is crass beyond words.
We are not holding a fundraiser at a funeral. We are donating money to pro-lgbt life saving organizations for every hater that shows up to Gerry's Funeral. I'm sure Gerry Studds, the first openly gay congressman would be honored that we are not causing a spectacle at his funeral, but instead honoring him by helping to continue the fight for lgbt equality.
thank you for the clarification. i mistook who ryan meant by 'protester' above - you might want to spell it out crystal clear to avoid further unjustified criticism. i hope you rake in the cash!
:) Thanks Laurel
I like this idea. I'll definitely donate $5 per Westboro protester who comes to an AIDS and/or LGBT organization. I have a few in mind that Phelps is particularly likely to hate. One is Cambridge Cares About AIDS, which works with transwomen, IV drug users, women getting out of prison, homeless youth, and many other underserved populations (disclosure: I used to work there). I'm also thinking about FIERCE in New York City--queer kids of color fighting gentification on the piers.
So what'll it be, Fred? You wanna have your protest and risk me giving hte money anyway?
Oh, and I'll donate $18 to one of those groups even if they don't show up, just because I don't like the Phelpsians making the threat.
Will there be highly visible signs that make the Phelps protesters aware that they are helping our causes? Raising money is a great thing and all, but I want to the message to get across as well.
BLK We haven't discussed actions further than the fundraising yet, but we will. The event isn't until Dec. 2 so we have a little bit of time.
If you haven't already please fill out the pledge form to help us keep track. This will help us remind you via email or phone when the time comes.
http://queertoday2.blogspot.com/2006/11/fred-phelps-pledge-thon.html
Could you put on the pledge form an explanation of what's going on? Even that it's a pledge per-protester that shows up at the funeral and whose funeral it is, etc.
I know this is just getting started but I would like to be able to send the link around but it needs a little more info.
Hi, all. A minor correction in the info listed about my donation: the website for FIERCE is http://www.fiercenyc.org, not fierceny.org. Check 'em out--great group. And I've decided that the other group I might give to is Boston GLASS, which is an incredible group in Boston focused on LGBT youth, mostly low-income, mostly of color. http://www.bostonglass.org.
Take care.
-Mister Goat, aka Fieldscornerguy on Blue Mass Group
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