11.13.08

Houston Protest of Cailf Prop 8 to ban GLBT marriage, 12:30 Sat.

Posted in Events, GHDC Blog at 6:58 am by M Beauregard

Houston Area Stonewall Democrats hopes you will join us for this very important rally!

National Protest Against Prop. 8 on Saturday, Nov. 15th at 12:30pm CST.

Hi all, 

As some of you have heard, there will be a National Protest Against Prop. 8 on Saturday, Nov. 15th at 12:30pm CST.

Josh Verde, Paul Hidalgo & Meghan Baker have taken the initiative to start the movement here in Houston, TX. Their contact info is: josh.verde@gmail.com, phidalgo25@gmail.com, and hsyd.outreach@houstonstonewallyd.org, respectively.

See the local link to the event here: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Houston.  

Josh has been able to set up a blog here: http://airexposure.com/fighth8/ 
Meghan has been able to set up the Facebook Event Invite here: http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=35183835938 .  (You must be a member of Facebook to see the Facebook invite, though.)  Meghan has also made the attached flyers that need to be distributed around the community.  

Equality Texas has issued an email alert regarding the event.  You can see a copy of the newsletter here: http://eqfed.org/eqtx/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=28936991

I know Rice University’s Queers & Allies along with Rice’s ACLU have sent an alert to their members letting them know where to meet prior to the event so that they can go as a group.  The University of Houston’s GLOBAL group has also sent a email reminders to their members.

Kris Banks from HSYD is going to get the sound & assembly permits today.  Jerry Simoneaux is contacting several potential speakers for the event.  Christopher Brown from the Houston GLBT Community Center is also working to coordinate our efforts, to get out press releases and to make sure we have sound equipment.  Chuck Smith from Equality Texas is working on some talking points that attendees can use for the media. Ryan Levy from HRC’s Federal Club is also organizing people through Facebook. I will have a group of people collecting contact info of the attendees on Saturday.

Given the fast developments regarding this event, I wanted to make sure everybody was aware of the event and of the planning steps behind the scenes.

Please let Josh, Paul, Meghan & Chris Brown (CBrown@simonbrown.com) know if you are interested in assisting with this event.  Any other ideas on how to make this event bigger and better are highly appreciated.  I am sending this email to the Houston Area Stonewall Democrats, Houston GLBT Political Caucus, Equality Texas, HRC, Queers & Allies, GLOBAL, Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity, Inc., Houston GALLO, Harris County Young Democrats & the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats.  Feel free to communicate this to the other LGBT organizations that were not copied on this email.

Also, let’s try to keep the same event links when you send out information in order to make it easier to update information on just those sites.

In the mean time, we would appreciate if if you could send an email notice to your distribution lists.  

Here’s a sample email template that can be used:
Saturday, November 15 — PROP 8 PROTEST!
12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Come out to City Hall (900 Bagby) this Saturday at 12:30 pm to take part in a NATIONWIDE effort to protest Prop 8 and stand up for equality for all. Signs, fliers, and more information can be found at

http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Houston or http://airexposure.com/fighth8/

and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35183835938

Please SPREAD THE WORD not only to other GLBTAs in Houston, but also to local organizations and surrounding communities.

***ABOUT THE SIGNS!***
Please make sure that your signs are double sided and don’t have anything antagonistic or hateful written on them. We are staging as PEACEFUL protest and need to present a positive image of our community.

***HOW TO DRESS!!***
Please dress in a respectful manner and keep our audience in mind. We want the people who see us at the protest to be able to identify with us. Remember this isn’t pride or block party so we don’t need to be outrageous. We don’t want anything to distract from our message: We are Americans, too, and want to be treated equally. Dress comfortably and modestly.


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Thanks for all of your help and feel free to chime in with any suggestions.  As you can see, all of this has been developing over the last couple of days.  This is exciting!!!

- Victor
Victor M. Castillo, Vice President
Houston Stonewall Young Democrats
Mobile: 832.689.0145
hsyd.vicepresident@houstonstonewallyd.org |  www.houstonstonewallyd.org 
http://facebook.com/group.php?gid=2338637510  |  http://www.myspace.com/170017766

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