GUIDELINES/SUGGESTIONS TO HELP LEAD ORGANIZERS PREPARE FOR THE MARCH IN THEIR LOCATION/COUNTRY

2012 Worldwide LGBT Civil Rights March

YOUR MARCH LOCATION & YOUR LEAD ORGANIZER SHOULD BE REGISTERED FIRST (if you haven't returned the registration form emailed to you earlier, take the time and do so now before you proceed...THANKS)

IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL:THESE GUIDELINES/SUGGESTIONS ARE BY NO MEANS INTENDED TO BE ALL INCLUSIVE OR NECESSARILY THE ONLY WAY TO GO ABOUT PLANNING FOR THE MARCH IN YOUR LOCATION; THEY ARE JUST WHAT THEY ARE...SUGGESTIONS & GUIDELINES!  EACH SITE LOCATION & EACH LEAD ORGANIZER ARE DIFFERENT AND BY ALL MEANS EMPLOY WHAT YOU KNOW AND WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOUR PARTICULAR LOCATION &/OR COUNTRY.

HOWEVER, THE TEN MUSTS IN A MARCH (shown below) SHOULD BE FOLLOWED VERY CLOSELY AS WE ARE REPRESENTING THE LGBT SEGMENT OF SOCIETY AND WE MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY, AS WELL AS WE HAVE SPONSORS WHO HAVE GRACIOUSLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS EVENT AND WE NEED TO RESPECT THEM AND THE FACT WE ARE REPRESENTING THEM AS WELL...

Our goal in organizing these marches is to reach out to as many people as possible with the intention of persuading them to stand with us in our battle of demanding FULL CIVIL RIGHTS for the LGBT, including Marriage Equality. It is important to remember that we are not only fighting the laws with these marches, but are also fighting the stigma and stereotypes that the opposition paints us with. The image we present to the public can and does have an enormous impact on the effectiveness of our marches and in some cases, it could even affect our own personal safety. This includes not only interactions with media, law enforcement or other officials, but with spectators as well.

OVERVIEW OF RIGHT TO MARCH: (each country will have different stated/implied rights)

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution specifically allows peaceful marches and the freedom of assembly as part of a measure to facilitate the redress of grievances. Amendment I: Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  The majority of countries worldwide, along with a somewhat non-committal backing of the United Nations, allow for such marches (please check with your individual state department of your own country for more information if desired).

Now originally, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress. However, starting with GITLOW v. New York, 268 US 652 (1925), in a series of cases, the Supreme Court has held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government. The city, county or state CAN MAKE NO LAW, policy or code that can supersede our Federal Right to Assemble and Petition for Redress of Grievances.

PERMITS:

Not all locations necessarily will require a permit to march, so immediately call the municipality of the desired march site inquiring if one is needed.  You will need an estimate of how many people are going to show up as well as the route taken and the date and time.  You will have to fill out an application ahead of time and possibly pay a small fee.

In researching numerous logs of marches, many organizers of marches have gotten away without getting a permit due to the way they performed the march.  If the march is generally conducted on a public sidewalk or designated walk/jog route and you are not blocking traffic and observe all traffic lights and do not block doorways to businesses and stay in flow with the general public pedestrian traffic moving around the city, you will have no problem without a permit. 

THE KEY HERE IS THAT YOU CANNOT STOP AND HOLD UP ANYTHING AND MUST KEEP MOVING, EVEN IF IT'S JUST GOING CONTINUALLY AROUND AND AROUND A DESIGNATED BLOCK OR BLOCKS FOR THE MARCH & YOU MUST OBEY ALL WALK & GO TRAFFIC LIGHTS!

If a permit is required for a special route or location, be sure to have at least someone at the front, middle, and rear of the march carry a copy of the permit with them. Lead Organizers need to start planning at least two to three months ahead of the march date of 4/21/2012, not only for adequate preparation, but in case a permit is required, even though the process of application and obtaining a permit can generally be accomplished within a matter of days. The earlier you start, the better and more prepared you will be for your location. USA ONLY- In the DC area, you will most likely need a permit as it is more difficult to get by without one, but some have in the past...just call the National Parks Permit Office  (202) 245-4715 and they can fax you a permit application; in this area call immediately and proceed, as if your desired route is not available for 4/21/2012, you may have to change your route.  The National Parks Permit Office will take care of notifying the District of Colombia Police and other city organizations that require special events notification. It's that simple!

TEN MUSTS IN A MARCH:

 1.  All actions are nonviolent
 2.  Stay together
 3.  Stay behind any cops if they present themselves along your route
 4.  Don't throw anything
 5.  Don't communicate with the police at all & comply with their requests immediately
 6.  Designate crowd leaders to be responsible for keeping the marchers in line
 7.  Be polite, pleasant, & smile; do not engage in disagreements or shouting matches with spectators or passersby
 8.THIS IS NOT A GAY PRIDE PARADE BY ANY MEANS
 9.  Do not bring alcohol, weapons, or any illegal substances; do not come to the march intoxicated
10. The 2012 Worldwide LGBT Civil Rights Marches are not exercises in violent civil disobedience, but are exercises of freedom of speech and public marches, in addition to non-violent forms of certain justifiable individual civil disobedience within reason (if necessary).  While we do not promote the risk of any of our supporters to put themselves at that risk of being arrested, we will not put constraints on those who feel it necessary to exercise non-violent justifiable forms of certain civil disobedience as an individual!

PLANNING & ORGANIZING YOUR MARCH:

 1. Check & arrange for PERMIT, if needed (see above)
 2. Plan your march route wisely; pick a popular & highly visible route (most permit applications require the route on application)
 3. Recruit a highly visible LGBT or LGBT friendly individual to LEAD the march
 4. Help deliver our message of Full Civil Rights for the LGBT, including Marriage Equality with signs, banners, & the use of a megaphone (best to only have one megaphone as if many, the messages are not clear to the listeners/spectators along the route & usually it best for the march leader to carry the megaphone)
 5. Promote your local march...(do it early & all the way up to & including the day of the march)
     a. put up flyers in your area everywhere (especially LGBT & LGBT friendly establishments)
     b. contact all media in your area (radio & TV stations, local talk shows, local newspapers & publications, etc.; contact them early & give them plenty of lead time) and formally invite them to the march and let them know you are available for both pre- and post-interviews
     c. utilize all online social media avenues
     d. use press releases to update your area on the upcoming march
     e. USE THE RESOURCES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR ASSISTANCE
 6. Don't just trust the media to take pictures of the event, be sure you have a couple marchers take plenty of pictures of the march and the crowd that day
 7. Each marcher should carry with them copies of flyers detailing what we want (demands for full Civil Rights for the LGBT, including Marriage Equality; if there are other specific demands for your own individual city/state/province/area/country where your march is held, as long as they relate to equality for the LGBT & other pressing LGBT issues, please use this event to include those as well) to hand out to those spectators along the route or anyone else who may ask for information - DON'T FORGET ABOUT ELECTION 2012 AND WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND ON ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE TO THE LGBT...
 8. Get people to the march; not just participants in the march, but spectators as well (promoting the march, #5 above, will help in getting both there)
 9. Utilize the Steps to Get Active & Participate in the "more info" section of the event page @
https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=217923068269572
10. HAVE A BLAST
Official website just launched   http://www.letsreachonemillionpeople.com 

LEAD BANNER AND OTHER SIGN GUIDELINES APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE:
LEAD BANNER (must be adhered to due to sponsor agreements):

1. White with Purple Text
2. Top line in BOLD CAPS:

2012 WORLDWIDE LGBT... CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH - "name of location"


3. Next line also in BOLD CAPS with little smaller text than first:


CIVIL RIGHTS are HUMAN RIGHTS


4. Bottom line in BOLD CAPS with little smaller text than second:


LET'S REACH 1 MILLION PEOPLE CAMPAIGN...

(The "dot, dot, dot" at the end of LGBT covers all others as well like the intersexed and questioning; the general public knows our community as LGBT and if we add some other letters, we would need to add them all and it would be something like LGBTQIA and that could be confusing to many. Also using lower cased letters for the word "are" between CIVIL RIGHTS & HUMAN RIGHTS makes those 2 stand out more. Lastly the "dot, dot, dot" after the group name allows us to shorten it and make it more visible. These suggestions just stated in this paragraph came from a college professor from OU who was presented with all of this and he gave his professional suggestion as to type set and punctuation, etc.)

ALL OTHER SIGNS & BANNERS:

Individual signs are up to lead organizer and planners for each location as they all have their own issues. Definitely no vulgarity, no name calling, no negative slogans, a must that all signs and banners have a positive message, no hate speech (even against the GOP), or innuendos of any violence and a few signs need to include the political climate of the election year and supporting LGBT and LGBT friendly candidates. 

(photo courtesy of dreamstime.com)
(all rights to this event protected & reserved by EHP, LLC 9/24/2011)
AN ESPRESSO HOUSE EVENT...
NOTE: copyright pending and protected rights is strictly on the structure and guidelines for this event and has nothing to do with the rights to promote, advertise, or any media coverage of this event.