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The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend:
"a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."

He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior." (CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)


Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).

"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008



Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:

A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist."
(Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)

"A nutty lesbian blogger."
(MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)


Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush


who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
--"Joe"

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Join the Impact: taking social network activism (and LGBTQ rights) to the next level

by: jonpincus

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 23:01:57 PM EST


Kate X Messer's Young gay marriage activist leads national protests on 365 Gay profiles Seattle Amy Balliett, who started up the Join the Impact web site after a blog post and email by her friend Willow Witte.  Amy's 26, and her day job is as a search engine optimizer.  It's also an excellent history of the start of the movement:
By Monday morning, a plan had emerged: Cities around the country would organize their own efforts to coordinate a synchronized protest for Sat., Nov. 15, 10:30 a.m. PST. The movement became officially global with hits from the UK and France, and by Nov. 11, over one million visitors had come to the site.

Across the country, posts on Craigslist, bulletins on MySpace, and emails on ListServs with titles like "Meet at City Hall next weekend!" and "Upset about Prop 8? Here's what YOU can do about it," began to buzz with notice of the upcoming national protest.


Fight the H8 in Seattle
Nancy Scola's Once a Local Legal Battle, Is Prop 8 On Its Way to 'Net-Fueled Cultural Moment? on techPresident puts Join the Impact in context: "Its success is reminiscent of Columbia's anti-FARC movement launched on Facebook that spawned protests all over the world."  Yeah, really.
jonpincus :: Join the Impact: taking social network activism (and LGBTQ rights) to the next level
I don't mean to slight the other LGBTQ rights activism going on out there.  Equality Utah's brilliant idea of reaching out to LDS leaders by taking them at their word and asking them to co-sponsor civil unions in Utah presents the church with an opportunity.   At the same time the fiasco at the El Coyote press conference, the sticky situation for Sundance, and the artistic director of the California's largest musical theater stepping down in the wake of reaction to his $1000 donation ("He said his sister is a lesbian in a domestic partnership, which he understands to carry the same legal rights as marriage") all show the strength of the various boycott movements.   Still, Join the Impact, with its Wetpaint wiki and social network focus, is the one that has me most excited.

In Towards a rebirth of freedom: activism on social networks back in July, I suggested

The experiences from Get FISA Right and other social network activism campaigns are much more broadly applicable.   As Cheryl Contee says, a lot of people "aren't as concerned about, say, FISA or impeachment. They want jobs" - or an end to wars and institutionalized violence, voting rights, affordable food, different commencement speakers, marriage equality ....We did a fairly good job of taking notes as we were going, and so hopefully there's a lot for people to build on; still, there's much more to be said.

Indeed.  Observing the incredible organizing skill of the Millennials who have grown up with these technologies it becomes abundantly clear how we were just scratching the surface.  My reaction is consistently "wow, that's kind of how I'd have approached things but they've done it much much better than I would have."  It starts with their positive and inclusive mission statement; a brief excerpt:
Our movement seeks to encourage the LGBTQ community not to look towards the past and place blame, but instead to look forward toward what needs to be done now to achieve one goal: Full equality for ALL. We stand for reaching out across all communities. We do not stand for bigotry, for scapegoating, or using anger as our driving force. Our mission is to encourage our community to engage our opposition in a conversation about full equality and to do this with respect, dignity, and an attitude of outreach and education.

Well said.  Then compare-and-contrast Get FISA Right's prototype Fifty-state strategy and List of Senator-specific Facebook groups with Join the Impact's main page (with a list of states + DC + International as well as the navigation on the left), and individual cities -- complete with embedded Google maps and links to Facebook groups.   Or check out their Twitter update directing people to a customizable press release template.

Join the impact on twitter

To be clear, I'm not dissing our accomplishments with Get FISA Right (GFR); we prototyped approaches like the 50-state strategy and use of SaysMe.tv, and GFR and the Voter Suppression Wiki together clearly had a big influence on Wetpaint wiki activism.  We continue to be used as an example of the power of social networks by people as diverse as Hillary Clinton's Internet expert Peter Daou and Music for Democracy founder Bear Kittay, and with discussions like What shoud Get FISA Right do now? starting up we're about to test Ari Melber's and my theories about reactivating net movements.  More on GFR soon.

Still, Join the Impact has taken things to another level, and as we go ahead on GFR we'll be looking to them for inspiration.  It's not surprising: for me, and the generally-older crowd that's been involed in Get FISA Right and the Voter Suppression Wiki, social network sites are with rare exceptions recently-learned behavior that typically isn't integrated fully into our lives.  By contrast:

"For me it's second nature," says Balliett of social networking. "It's my job. I think: Need to organize an event? Use the Internet. Throw a party? Use Evite. Technology offers a platform on which to hold the conversation. It's also given a platform for us to rally together and organize."

As I said in email to a couple of folks my age, "I feel old.  But in a good way."

The Seattle protest's at Volunteer Park this Saturday. Festivities start at 10:30 a.m., the rally and margh begins at noon, and there are speeches at Westlake Center at 2.  See you there, I hope!  And if you're not in the Seattle area, check out the wiki.  There's probably a protest near you.

Poll
Are you going to a Join the Impact protest on Saturday?
Yes
Maybe
No, I have a conflict, darn it
No, there aren't any in my area
No, it's not my scene
No, I don't support LGBTQ rights

Results

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Mega-update on prop 8 activism by Andy on Towleroad
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