As many of you might recall, my partner and I were involved in an anti-gay incident at the Fort Lauderdale Airportabout two months ago. Many of you called local officals and the tourism bureau. As a result of your help, my partner and I were able to move the police and airport officials to take some action. Due to the intense media coverage, we received some negative backlash. Among other things, I have received hate mail sent to my office, and my partner has been spit on and called fag when he has been out in public. More importantly, however, we have received lots of support and thanks from around the country for pushing the issue and taking a stand.
The entire incident showed us how important it is to take a stand and not let people get away with attacks on the GLBT community. Too often, we brush off hateful comments and cases of discrimination. To help others and to work on countering hate and discrimination against the GLBT community, we decided to start a non-profit organization to guide others who are not sure what to do when they are faced with some form of hate or discrimination. We learned a great deal through our incident, and we wanted to pass along some of those lessons.
The new non-profit, Fight OUT Loud, Inc., is an web-based support system. You can go to www.fightoutloud.org to see how it works. My partner, Waymon Hudson, designed the web site and is the current president of the new organization. The web site has three basic functions: to use our experience as a guide for individuals who find themselves in similar situations, to provide advice and support on how to confront incidents and roadblocks that they may encounter, and to set up an action email alert system to mobilize the GLBT community and its supporters when immediate action is required. We found no real organization that was available to help people who face individual incidents of discrimination or hate. Most organizations tend to work toward legislative or legal goals, with no real support for the everyday discrimination that individuals confront.
In order for the organization to work, we need to try to get as many people as possible to become aware of the organization and it's services, as well as to be on the email alert system. In just a couple of days since we launched the web site, we already have over 500 members on the email action system. This just proves to us the need and interest in what we are trying to do.
Please help us by visiting our web site and registering for email action alerts. People can also add us to their myspace friend list. We are also in the process of applying for 501c(3) charitable status, which would make all sponsorship and donations tax-deductible.
Thanks again for all of your help in fighting against discrimination and helping our organization.
Anthony Niedwiecki and Waymon Hudson.