POST WORLDWIDE LGBTQIA EVENT INITIAL MEDIA RELEASE

2012 Worldwide LGBTQIA Civil Rights Marches & Events

While this first attempt at a Worldwide LGBT Civil Rights March was an overall success, the organizers did learn many things from putting on something of this magnitude globally. Each continued endeavor of educating and enlightening societies and governments worldwide through our grassroots movement will be stronger and better prepared for as we learn from our experiences.

We have tons of footage in various forms that we are going through currently to get a more accurate picture of the day worldwide and soon, we will have a special page on our website at http://www.letsreachonemillionpeople.com/ devoted to post-event videos, interviews, etc. and the such.

While some of the registered locations showed little or no participation, the majority of those registered reached heights of triumph of their own with specific highlights shown by their videos, interviews, etc. There are even unregistered areas reporting on ways they participated on this historic day. Certain Pride celebrations registered with our committee as well, in order that solidarity be shown for all brothers and sisters worldwide on this momentous occasion.

One area we were especially ecstatic about was the overseas participation, especially from the Philippines. With so many atrocities occurring in numerous countries against the LGBT, it was a priority of the committee to make sure our message got out loud and clear to those societies and governments overseas. 

Areas within the states that were truly exciting were the various speeches given by so many wonderful individuals both within and outside the LGBT communities. Locations such as Atlanta, Millington, Oklahoma City, Jackson, Athens, Chicago, NYC, DC and many others experienced true success and joy on this day, with a sense of belonging, along with a strong personal feeling of the timing being right and our window of opportunity wide open to fight hard and gain our Basic Human Rights by continuing to build on the momentum that continued and was enhanced on this very special day.

We had many young and exciting LGBT activists who were fairly new to activism and it was rewarding to see the fruits of their labor and know the future of LGBT activism will be left in good hands.


PRELIMINARY ATTENDANCE NUMBERS AND SHOW OF APPRECIATION FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS (post event):


After going through tons of emails, facebook messages, footage from the day, right now the preliminary unconfirmed numbers worldwide looks like we are talking about anywhere from 6-8,000 worldwide participants…we had a few pride events on this day in conjunction with this worldwide effort, private participation in many countries where atrocities are common within the communities and for safety and privacy issues their events were not publicized, many private events going on in Great Britain that were not in the media out of respect for the Queens Birthday on April 21, so there are many factors that entered into these estimates. With these items in mind and the more than 20 active locations in the event out of more than 30 registered and numerous unregistered locations participating in one way or another, spotters, lead organizer comments and many other factors allowed us today, after reviewing hours of information, footage, etc. to arrive at these numbers.

What has been done and what each of you did today will change the world as we know it. Societies and governments worldwide will now know that we DEMAND our BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS and we will not let anything stand in our way. This education and enlightenment will allow every member of every society, as well as all governments worldwide to be aware of the atrocities occurring in various parts of the world, along with the lack of existence and application worldwide of the laws necessary to assure that every individual is guaranteed those same rights regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity as those enjoyed by all other segments of societies throughout the world. THIS IGNORANCE MUST AND WILL STOP AND IS A REQUIRED STEP ON OUR JOURNEY TO FULL EQUALITY…

EQUALITY will be much closer because of EACH OF YOU and all of your efforts to make this day, April 21, 2012 a success and a day to go down in the history books as the day thousands of people united together in many different countries and states throughout the world, along with individuals from many unofficial site locations too numerous to mention, to make their voices heard. Our work is just now beginning and we will build on this momentum with a documentary on this special day that is being planned and forthcoming prior to the elections in America in November.

I am truly blessed to know each of you and my own life is forever changed because of each of you. I love all of you and care very much and please know that I will always be here for anything any of you may need.

With tears of joy in my eyes…Joe Knudson!