GAY PRIDE & LIBERATION EVENTS

Volunteer for the group that's been on the front lines for our rights!

This is not a fund-raising pitch. Instead, it is an appeal for your help.

GLN permalink 6-18-2013

Every week since mid-April, the Gay Liberation Network has been out in the streets countering the anti-LGBT haters at the Illinois Family Institute, demanding accountability from House Speaker Mike Madigan for the failure of SB10, calling out Cardinal George for viciously organizing against our equal rights, to marching for real immigration reform, and more.

While we've partnered with other groups and individuals at several of these protests against the IFI, GLN was the only organization out there every weekend that the IFI was rallying to drown our rights.

While others were engaged in fruitless lobbying of elected officials, in April we began repeatedly pointing out to anyone who cared to listen that the real key to winning SB10 was putting the heat on Speaker Mike Madigan to finally put a priority on LGBT rights. He controls the House, in much the same way that Mayor Emanuel controls Chicago's City Council, but we alone in the LGBT community were calling him out for his failure to really support the equal marriage rights bill.

We can do this because as an all-volunteer organization -- with no paid staff, no office -- we have very little overhead and thus are not dependent on Madigan or other Illinois politicians for funding or other favors. On May 31st, Madigan screwed us, but through our activities, we made sure that people knew about it, as a result, that he began to pay a political price for doing it.

While campaigning in the streets, we've also published several op eds, and gotten into the studio to produce television shows promoting everything from Freedom for Bradley Manning, to real immigration reform, to the defense of our civil liberties, to speaking Trans 101.

And long before we needed help from others outside of our community to win Illinois equal marriage rights bill, GLN recognized that in order to be deserving of that solidarity, we needed to be extending some of our own. As the Windy City Times recently editorialized, "some groups, like Gay Liberation Network, are always crossing these boundaries, from displaying their rainbow colors at everything from immigration rallies and war protests to the Chicago Teachers Union rallies."

And now we need your help -- as a volunteer.

This coming weekend, June 23-24, GLN will be participating in the big street fair on Halsted Street known as PrideFest. But in order to get more people involved in activism to secure our rights, we need your help as a volunteer to help staff our booth, to help distribute thousands of pieces of literature, etc. The organizers have yet to tell us exactly where our booth will be located, so If you can help out for an hour or two (or more!), please email our volunteer coordinator, Roger Fraser, at rfraser4584@gmail.com, or call GLN at 773-209-1187, to get the info you need to volunteer.

And on Sunday, June 30, we need your help at Pride.

At this year's Gay Pride Parade, we will be emphasizing two themes -- "Marriage Equality Now!" and "Free Bradley Manning," and we invite your participation in our parade contingent!

We will have signs and banners emphasizing the two themes, but feel free to make and bring your own too! The Parade Committee has not told us where we will be assembling yet, so we are asking all volunteers to meet us at 11 AM sharp, Sunday, June 30 at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Sunnyside Avenue, right in front of the new Target. From there, we will walk to the actual contingent location. Again, if you can volunteer to help us out, please email our volunteer coordinator, Roger Fraser, at rfraser4584@gmail.com, or call GLN at 773-209-1187 (in case you can't find us, our day-of cell phone contact will be 773-209-1187).

THANK YOU!!

Last year's GLN Pride Parade contingent